MARCH 11, 2005 Posted: April 8, 2005 Martyn See, documentary filmmaker THREATENED, CENSORED Independent documentary filmmaker Martyn See pulled his short documentary, “Singapore Rebel”, from the Singapore International Film Festival after officials warned him that he might face criminal charges if the film was screened at the festival in April. The film chronicles the civil…
Across Asia, press freedom conditions varied radically in 2003, from authoritarian regimes with strictly regulated state-controlled media in North Korea and Laos, to democratic nations with outspoken and diverse journalism in India and Taiwan. Members of the media throughout the region struggled against excessive government interference, outdated press laws, violent attacks, and imprisonment for their…
Singapore continued to promote its bid to become a “global media city ” in 2003 but failed to take any concrete steps toward loosening stringent controls over free speech and the press. As part of a campaign to liven up its stuffy international image, the government liberalized a number of its draconian social controls: Bungee…
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…
In April, for the first time in 10 years, Singapore’s government acknowledged the need to relax controls over media. In an effort to promote the country as an international arts and culture hub, officials also launched a review of the country’s stringent censorship policies, which regulate licensing and all media content, including on Singapore-based Web…
Journalists across Asia faced extraordinary pressures in 2001. Risks included reporting on war and insurgency, covering crime and corruption, or simply expressing a dissenting view in an authoritarian state. CPJ’s two most striking indices of press freedom are the annual toll of journalists killed around the world and our list of journalists imprisoned at the…
In the run-up to November’s general elections, entrenched government control of the media and new regulations governing the Internet and the foreign press virtually silenced public dissent. The ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) overwhelming dominance in the media sector helped guarantee the party’s supremacy: It won more than 75 percent of the vote, its biggest…
New York, April 19, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the Singapore Parliament’s passage today of a bill designed to curb foreign broadcasters’ coverage of local issues. The new law, which gives the government broad power to restrict or suspend broadcasters for “engaging in domestic politics,” is expected to take…