How social media regulation could affect the press
The United Kingdom moved a step closer to regulating social media in December when a parliamentary committee recommended major changes to the country’s Online Safety Bill so as to hold internet service providers responsible for material published on their platforms. “We need to call time on the Wild West online,” said committee chair Damian Collins….
After a harrowing escape, a family of Afghan journalists prepares for a new life in the US
The day Kabul fell to the Taliban, was the “end of the line for us as journalists,” said Shiraz Noorani. That day, August 15, 2021, was when the Nooranis, a family of five current and former Afghan journalists, decided to flee the country. Four months later, four of the Nooranis — siblings Shiraz, Ghazal, and…
‘Taken into a cage’: Hong Kong’s sad media milestone
The year 2021 marks a sad milestone in Hong Kong. For the first time journalists in the former British colony appear on CPJ’s annual survey of journalists unjustly imprisoned for their work. Eight. Zero to eight in one year. I first visited Hong Kong nearly 50 years ago as a student and returned to live…
How Myanmar became the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists
Myanmar has catapulted in the rankings of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual census of jailed journalists, the repressive upshot of a democracy-suspending February 1 coup that saw authorities suppress news coverage of their harsh clampdown on anti-military protesters. At least 26 journalists were imprisoned in Myanmar for their reporting as of December 1, compared with…
How China’s Huawei technology is being used to censor news halfway across the world
When a staffer at the independent media website Iwacu in the central African state of Burundi tried to visit the outlet online in late October, they received an error message instead. “Hum. Nous ne parvenons pas à trouver ce site;” the site could not be found – even though the local media regulator had promised…
Hong Kong FCC survey shows journalists concerned about possible arrest and prosecution
A significant majority of journalists in Hong Kong are concerned about the possibility of arrest or prosecution due to their work, according to a survey recently published by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC). The survey, based on responses from 70 correspondents for foreign media and 29 for local news organizations, about 25% of the…
Lawyer Apar Gupta: With Pegasus probe, India’s Supreme Court is pushing the government to answer to journalists
On October 27, India’s Supreme Court ordered a “thorough inquiry” into the government’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware to monitor journalists and others by secretly surveilling their cell phones. The Israeli company NSO Group, which created Pegasus, says it sells only to official law enforcement agencies. Journalists in India have been aware of the threat…
CPJ joins letter calling for release of Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang
The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined 27 other free speech and human rights organizations in an open letter urging Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Pham Doan Trang. The letter is timed to coincide with the start of her trial on November 4; Trang has been held in pretrial detention for over…
China’s Olympic press freedom pledges: Worthless in 2008, absent in 2022
Prospects for free-wheeling media coverage of the February Beijing Winter Olympics seem increasingly dim, not least because of the attitude of the International Olympic Committee. On October 13, John Coates, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, dismissed out of hand calls from CPJ, human rights groups, and US lawmakers to pressure Beijing over its…
