Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator
CPJ’s Rebecca MacKinnon on ‘Internet freedom’ in WSJ
Here’s a quick pointer to an insightful Wall Street Journal op-ed about Internet freedom from CPJ board member (and former CNN colleague) Rebecca MacKinnon. She’s based in Washington these days, a Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation, so she has plenty to say about inside the Beltway funding issues. But she’s…
News with a genuine North Korea dateline
A book named Rimjin-gang–News from Inside North Korea just became available. It’s a compilation of years of reporting by a group of about 12 North Koreans using video and still cameras to record everyday life in North Korea. The title comes from the Rimjin River (Imjin in English), which forms part of the Demilitarized Zone…
Lugar: Umar Cheema case a ‘bellwether’ for Pakistan
Sen. Richard Lugar, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, wrote to Pakistani Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani on September 22 to express concern about the brutal attack on Umar Cheema. The journalist was abducted on the weekend of September 4-5 by men in black commando-style uniforms, who beat and humiliated him. It’s…
Naming names in a Pakistan abduction case
CPJ has always been careful to avoid making accusations when journalists are abducted or killed in Pakistan. Our tactic is to call for full investigations either by the police, the courts or special investigative bodies. In many such cases, the local journalists’ community blames government security agencies, including the powerful Inter Services Intelligence group (ISI),…
Arnada’s Supreme Court appeal continues in Indonesia
Here’s a quick update on the Indonesian Supreme Court’s ongoing hearing to review its decision to sentence Playboy Indonesia editor Erwin Arnada to two years in jail for “public indecency.” It’s a case I’ve been following closely, because the outcome is an indicator of which direction Indonesia will be moving in the coming years –…
Asia program now on Facebook, Twitter
Until now, CPJ’s Asia program has relied largely on email blasts to get the word out when we post something new on CPJ.org. Today we launched our Facebook and Twitter pages. Like us and follow us for an inside look at the Asia program and quick, timely updates on our alerts and blogs. We also…
In China, more calls for media freedom
Today, members of China’s Communist Party Central Committee met in Beijing to open a three-day discussion on the country’s next five-year development plan. And while they’re unlikely to openly debate a recent letter by 23 senior Party members, which called for sweeping reforms of China’s media censorship policies, it will certainly be in the air.
Indonesian Playboy editor held in high-security prison
Erwin Arnada turned himself in to authorities at Cipinang prison in East Jakarta on October 9 to start serving a two-year sentence for public indecency. His conviction stemmed from pictures he published in a 2006 issue of the now-defunct Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine. On September 30, CPJ called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and…
