Top Developments • In run-up to Communist Party Congress, authorities clamp down on Internet. • Critical blogs targeted in hacking attacks; government complicity seen. Key Statistic 5: Online journalists imprisoned on December 1, reflecting crackdown on Internet commentary. Vietnam targeted online journalists in a clampdown on dissent ahead of a 2011 Communist Party Congress at…
Bangkok, January 31, 2011–The death of a Vietnamese journalist who was brutally attacked last week underscores the urgency for authorities to investigate the case, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Le Hoang Hung, a reporter with the Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper, succumbed to severe injuries in a Ho Chi Minh City hospital over the weekend, according to…
Bangkok, January 21, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about a Wednesday morning attack on Vietnamese reporter Le Hoang Hung, who was doused with chemicals and set on fire by an unknown assailant while sleeping in his house in Tan An town, according to local and international press reports.
Bangkok, January 13, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a new executive decree issued on January 6 in Vietnam that will give authorities greater powers to penalize journalists, editors, and bloggers who report on issues deemed as sensitive to national security. The new media regulations were issued amid a mounting clampdown on dissent shortly before…
CPJ has documented for several years the use of spurious anti-piracy raids to shut down and intimidate media organizations in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Offices have been shut down, and computers seized. Often, security agents make bogus claims to be representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. software company Microsoft.
Bangkok, October 28, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest and detention of Vietnamese blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra. Her arrest is the latest episode in a mounting crackdown on bloggers leading up to a crucial Communist Party congress scheduled for January 2011.
The International Telecommunications Union starts its plenipotentiary meeting this week. Some worry that some nations will use their position at the ITU to attempt to grab more control over how the Internet works. RSF covers the Burmese DDOS attacks. I’ve heard some really fascinating detective work on the real origins of these attacks – hope…
General purpose computers give journalists an incredible amount of power to create, research, and publish their work away from those who may wish to interfere. But such independence requires that the computer itself remain free and uncompromised by software that works against the journalist’s own interests.