Results matching “china protest a”

Reporters Without Borders is launching on March 12th the first International Online Free Expression Day, organized under UNESCO patronage, which will be accompanied by the organization's second "24-hour online demo against Internet censorship."

Reporters Without Borders has created virtual representations of nine countries with government censorship, and is calling on internet users to protest web censorship by creating an online avatar and joining an online demonstration. Demonstrations will take place in Burma, China, North Korea, Egypt, Cuba, Eritrea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, or Vietnam.

According to the European Journalism Centre, 63 cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned worldwide.

Source: European Journalism Centre

The Malaysian Chinese language daily The China Press, second largest Chinese language paper in Malaysia, has announced that its editor in chief Chong Chung Nam, and executive editor Wong Siew Peng, have resigned.  Protestors have called this a blow to press freedom and claimed that the editors were forced to resign because of government threats that the paper's publishing permit would be cancelled.

Staff at the tabloid the Beijing News, "one of China's most outspoken newspapers", began strike action last Thursday in response to the dismissal of editor-in-chief Yang Bin and other senior editors. Additionally, a petition was circulated amongst the paper's staff "denouncing Mr Yang's dismissal and the handover of control to more conservative editors." 

Last month in Moscow, the Russian Guild of Press Publishers held the First Russian Publishers Conference.  During the Press Freedom Seminar, President of the World Editors Forum and Saturday Editor of The Times (London), George Brock, gave a talk discussing the freedom of the press in Russia, whose text is posted below. 

After Li Datong's open letter (see yesterday's posting) questioning a new appraisal system, that links journalists' salaries to official approval, the state-run paper China Youth Daily has scrapped the system. According to AFP editors and reporters are invited to discuss a new system. However, it is yet too early for reporters to claim victory.

Source: AFP

Li Datong, veteran editor of the outspoken China Youth Daily, wrote an open letter to the staff questioning a new appraisal system linking journalists' salaries to party praise, reports Asia Media. The letter of Li Datong, who is editor of Bingdian Weekly, a supplement running investigative stories every Wednesday, was posted on the popular chat room Yannan BBS, writes Asia Media.

In his "unusual show of dissent against the communist party's iron grip over the media" (AFP), Li Datong argues that the new system threatens editorial freedom: "Under such an uncivilised and unreasonable system, provided that editors and journalists have not gone mad, who on earth would still want to write reports which keep officials in check?" he asked. According to AFP, the appraisal system, that is planned to be implemented this week, works as follows: "Reporters would be awarded 300 points for stories praised by central government leaders, 120 points for those praised by the Communist Party Propaganda Department and 100 points for those praised by party officials. But by the same standard, reporters will receive negative points for writing stories that are criticised by these officials." The new editor-in-chief of China Youth Daily, Li Erliang, took over in December "in a reshuffle regarded as a sign of a tightening of media controls by the authorities", states Asia Media.

The appraisal system seems to be in line with China's efforts to tighten control over the media (see previous posting) and its policy against dissident writers (see previous posting).

Source: AFP, Asia Media