Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009asia: burmaThe Afghan press corps covered violence and corruption forcefully, althoughpolitical influence on news outlets was pervasive. Many media outlets are tied toinfluential political figures and tribal leaders, and the government often allocatesbroadcast licenses to local figures to curry political favor. Reporting on the drugtrade was especially hazardous. The 2008 murder of Abdul Samad Rohani, aBBC and Pajhwok Afghan News reporter who had covered drug trafficking inHelmand province, remained unsolved.In late December, a reporter embedded with Canadian troops was killedalong with four soldiers while traveling in a military convoy. Michelle Lang, whowas working for the Calgary Herald and Canwest News Service, was covering theactivities of a reconstruction team when its vehicle hit a roadside bomb just southof Kandahar.The year was marked by one positive note. Parwez Kambakhsh, a 24-yearoldAfghan journalist and student unjustly convicted of blasphemy, was freedfrom Kabul Detention Center in August, apparently on a presidential pardon.Kambakhsh had been arrested in October 2007 and accused of distributing anInternet article about women’s rights in Islam. He was initially sentenced to deathduring a brief, closed-door proceeding at which he was denied legal representation.The death sentence was later reduced to a 20-year prison term.CPJ had waged a vigorous international campaign on behalf of Kambakhsh,and had visited the young reporter in jail in July. The case was politically sensitivefor Karzai, who had to strike a balance between international pressure and theexpectations of the country’s conservative religious leadership. Yaqub Ibrahimi,the journalist’s brother and a reporter himself, thanked CPJ for its advocacy inthe case and said the release was “a victory for freedom of speech in Afghanistan.”Wary of future reprisals, Kambakhsh and his brother left Afghanistan for undisclosedlocations.BURMAThroughout the year, burma’s ruling junta emphasized its plansto move toward multiparty democracy after decades of military rule, a longpromisedtransition that dissidents and others viewed as a sham to furtherconsolidate the military’s power. As the country geared up for general electionsin 2010—the first since the military annulled the 1990 elections, whichwere won overwhelmingly by the political opposition—authorities maintainedstrict censorship over the local news media and held at least nine journalistsbehind bars.The military regime came under heavy international pressure, particularlyt o p developments»»Some political prisoners freed, butnine journalists still held.»»Government censors all printpublications, controls broadcasters.1stkey statisticRanking on CPJ’s WorstCountries to Be a Blogger.from the United States and the European Union, to release the estimated 2,100political prisoners it held in detention, including Aung San Suu Kyi, party leaderof the National League for Democracy. As part of a mass amnesty of 7,114prisoners on September 18, three journalists were released among an estimated120 political detainees.Among those freed was Eine Khine Oo, a reporter with the Ecovision weeklyjournal who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008 for reporting on a demonstrationof Cyclone Nargis victimsseeking aid in front of a U.N.office in Rangoon. Weekly Elevenreporter Kyaw Kyaw Thant, whowas sentenced to seven years onantistate charges for covering thesame demonstration, was alsoreleased. Thet Zin, editor of theMyanmar Nation weekly newsjournal, was freed in the amnestyafter being sentenced in 2008 toseven years in prison on illegalprinting charges. At the time ofZin’s arrest, police seized video footage of Buddhist monk-led protests and a criticalreport written by U.N. Special Rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro from thejournal’s offices.The military government’s revolving prison door opened to at least three otherjournalists, all of whom were being held without publicly disclosed charges inlate year. Police and military intelligence officials arrested Thant Zin Soe, an editorand translator for the journal Foreign Affairs, at his Rangoon home in October,according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom advocacy group. PaingSoe Oo, a freelance online commentator writing under the name Jay Paing,was arrested the same month in Rangoon. The media association said it believedhe was suspected of providing information to foreign news and nongovernmentalorganizations. A video journalist known as “T,” who worked undercover for theOslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma, was arrested in mid-year. The RoryPeck Trust announced “T’s” detention in November 18 as it honored him and anunnamed colleague for their work on a documentary, “Orphans of the BurmeseCyclone,” according to international news reports.Exile-run media groups based outside the country told CPJ that some of theirundercover stringers were still being held in detention after a crackdown on politicaldissent in the wake of 2007 antigovernment street protests. They remainedanonymous out of fear the authorities would extend their prison sentences if they118119