Former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s efforts to muzzle the press, and bring the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government under his personal control, earned him the reputation of a tyrant and badly discredited Pakistan’s democracy. His slide toward authoritarianism ended abruptly with a bloodless coup on October 12, in which army chief Gen.…
Despite enjoying one of the freest presses in Asia, a number of Filipino journalists critical of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada found themselves in bitter conflict with the presidential palace in 1999. Those conflicts led to renewed fears that the media could find themselves under official assault, despite constitutional guarantees protecting a free press. In July,…
Singapore continues to proclaim itself a futuristic, high-tech information society, while clinging to heavy-handed authoritarianism in its regulation of the media. There is little free debate; without a government permit, even speaking in public is illegal. All of the tiny island state’s newspapers are controlled by one pro-government company. A similar entity dominates the broadcast…
While South Korea’s press was ostensibly free from overt pressures, its independence was compromised by complex links between media and various business and political interests. A high-profile tax evasion case involving one of South Korea’s largest daily newspapers, JoongAng Ilbo, underscored the problems of cronyism and corruption that continue to plague the press, but also…
Sri Lanka’s increasingly violent political climate has heightened the danger for the country’s journalists. The 16-year-old civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a guerrilla movement fighting for a separate homeland for the country’s ethnic Tamil minority, continued, and has so far claimed more than 61,000 lives.…
Taiwan, with its lively and diverse media, reveled in its reputation as a bastion of free speech and democracy. Government leaders made numerous public pronouncements on the importance of promoting press freedom, and advertised their efforts to strengthen civil liberties. In January, the legislature abolished a draconian publishing law that had been used to control…
Thailand’s journalists enjoy one of the freest presses in the developing world, and a new constitution implemented in 1997 provides some of the broadest press protections in Asia. The 1997 Official Information Act, which is modeled on the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, gives the public the right to access information that was once routinely…
Since its founding in 1981, CPJ has, as a matter of strategy and policy, concentrated on press freedom violations and attacks on journalists outside the United States. CPJ aims to devote its efforts to those countries where journalists are most in need of international support and protection. As a result, we do not systematically monitor…
Hunkering down to defend the Communist Party as the country’s sole voice of political power, Vietnam’s Politburo continues to bar virtually all attempts at free expression that violate the guidelines of the party leadership. Vietnam’s National Assembly amended and tightened an already repressive press law in June, centralizing media control–including the Internet–within the Ministry of…
New York, March 20, 2000 — Jagdish Bhattarai, editor of the Nepali-language weekly Nava Janachetana (“New Public Conscience”), was released yesterday from Palpa Jail, where he had served one week after being found guilty of contempt of court. The charge stemmed from an editorial about corruption in the local judiciary, headlined “Saviors of Justice Corrupt,”…