Asia

We issued the following statement today after a Philippine court sentenced Muhammad Maulana to life in prison for the murder of journalist Edgar Amoro. Amoro witnessed the killing of his fellow Pagadian City-based broadcaster, Edgar Damalerio, in May 2002. In December 2005, a police officer, Guillermo Wapile, was sentenced to life in prison for gunning down Damalerio...

We issued this statement today, after a special court in Burma handed down a 13-year sentence to journalist Ngwe Soe Lin, also known as Tun Kyaw, who reported for the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma Wednesday. He had been held since June 2009...

New York, January 29, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that journalists in Sri Lanka have been subjected to government intimidation, arrests, censorship, and harassment in the aftermath of this week’s presidential election. 

Siweiluozi’s Blog, an anonymous blog that covers various Chinese legal issues and current affairs, has translated a series of updates by Chinese writer Yang Zili, who was arrested in 2001 and later convicted of subversion against the state for online articles. Released last year after serving eight years, Yang joined Twitter and has been describing his incarceration in a series of short posts. 

In November 2009, I received this e-mail message from a few people in Pakistan:

TOP NEWS MANAGERS AGREE ON TV COVERAGE GUIDELINES

ISLAMABAD—Top news managers from Pakistan’s eight television channels have evolved a first-of-its-kind voluntary framework to standardize professional guidelines governing terrorism coverage. [A PDF of November’s message is here.]

Since then there hasn’t been much more news about the issue, and I thought that might be a good thing. I’m always wary when I see words like “guidelines” or “rules” or “regulations” for news coverage, terrorism-related or not. But the November announcement seemed to have broad industry support, and the guidelines were being called “voluntary”—always better than having them mandated by the government. 

Sri Lanka’s Department of Elections today declared incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa the winner of the presidential election with almost 58 percent of the vote. The situation is still tense as his opponent, former Gen. Sarath Fonseka, threatens a lawsuit to challenge the entire process, from voter access to irregularities in computer counting, to name just two aspects. Fonseka remains sequestered in the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in Colombo, where he and his political allies gathered as the results were tallied. Some Sri Lankan media say Fonseka is claiming there is a plot to assassinate him. Soon after he announced the results of the voting, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said he wanted to resign. He told reporters he is no longer able to bear the pressure imposed by various parties.

International press freedom groups, including CPJ, have released a new, in-depth report into the November massacre of 30 journalists and two media support workers in Maguindanao province, Philippines. The 32-page document questions why roughly 100 gunmen believed to be involved in the election-related killings have yet to be arrested, and it emphasizes the need for international groups to closely monitor the investigation and court proceedings. 

We issued this statement today after journalists in Sri Lanka told CPJ that access to several independent Web sites had been blocked as the country finished voting in presidential elections...

New York, January 25, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the reported disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a political reporter for the Sri Lankan news Web site Lanka eNews.

China has denied any involvement in the cyber attacks that Google revealed on January 12, and has said the country’s Internet is open. Local Internet users and entrepreneurs, however, know otherwise.