News Jan 9, 2018 Beijing Builds Its Influence in the American Media During China’s 19th Party Congress, held in Beijing from Oct. 18 to 24, the country’s state-controlled domestic media dutifully gave the dry, jargon-filled proceedings wall-to-wall front-page coverage.
News Jan 5, 2018 Friends of arrested Reuters reporter in Myanmar pour out hearts YANGON (Reuters) – Ever since Reuters Myanmar reporter Wa Lone was arrested on Dec. 12 on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act, friends and former colleagues have poured out their hearts and expressed hopes for his release on social media.
News Jan 4, 2018 Tibetan activist put on trial in China for inciting separatism A Tibetan language activist who appeared in a New York Times video has been put on trial for separatism in proceedings dismissed as a “sham” by rights groups, a sign of increasingly hardline attitudes towards government critics.
Media Jan 3, 2018 World’s awkward silence over Rohingya genocide warnings A stark warning from the UN in mid-December that genocide may be taking place in Myanmar has been met by an awkward silence around the world, indicating a limited appetite…
News Jan 2, 2018 Thousands in Hong Kong protest Beijing’s interference (Reuters) – Thousands of protestors marched to the mainland Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong on Sunday, demanding universal suffrage and protesting against Beijing’s perceived interference in the territory’s recent chief executive election.
News Dec 20, 2017 Cambodia is systematically squashing all forms of dissent (The Economist) – The scale of the crackdown is unprecedented, says Ou Virak, a political analyst who once worked at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, which the government recently threatened to close. Gatherings of more than five people are banned.
News Dec 18, 2017 China tells web giants they must accept limits to access (Sky News) – Web giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter would be welcome to operate in China if they adhered to Beijing’s strict censorship and surveillance laws, regulators have said.
News Dec 16, 2017 HRF calls on the Vietnamese government to release Nguyen Van Dai Human rights lawyer and activist Nguyen Van Dai was arrested on December 16, 2015, five days after he was beaten by a masked mob. He was charged under Vietnam’s ludicrous Article 88 for “conducting propaganda against the state.”
News Dec 15, 2017 Activists Pressure Lao Government on Missing Civil Society Leader Five years ago, Shui-Meng Ng and her husband, Sombath Somphone, were driving their car through Vientiane. It was on that day that he disappeared.
News Dec 14, 2017 6,700 Rohingya Muslims killed in one month in Myanmar, MSF says More than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the first month of a crackdown that started in August in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
News Dec 13, 2017 Pakistan orders George Soros foundation, other aid groups to close (Reuters) – Pakistan has told at least 10 foreign-funded aid groups to close, an umbrella agency said on Wednesday, including a charity founded by hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, the group said.
News Dec 12, 2017 North Korea’s prisons are as bad as Nazi camps (The Washington Post) – North Korea’s political prisons are just as bad as — and perhaps even worse than — the Nazi concentration camps of the Holocaust, a renowned judge and Auschwitz survivor has concluded after hearing from former North Korean prisoners and guards.
News Dec 7, 2017 China hosts global forum featuring own take on human rights BEIJING — Hundreds of participants attended the opening of a human rights forum in Beijing on Thursday in the latest installment of China’s energetic drive to showcase what it considers the strengths of its authoritarian political system under President Xi Jinping.
News Dec 6, 2017 Police have killed dozens of children in Philippines war on drugs, Am Police have killed dozens of children in the “war on drugs” in the Philippines in the last 18 months, Amnesty International said.
News Dec 6, 2017 President Rodrigo Duterte orders police to rejoin Philippines’ war on (Deutsche Welle) – Philippine police on Tuesday were ordered to rejoin the war on drugs, overturning President Duterte’s decision two months ago to leave the campaign in the hands of the government’s anti-drug agency.
News Dec 5, 2017 Cambodia urged to free opposition leader (The Australian) – More than 150 parliamentarians from 23 countries have sent an open letter to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, calling on him to “immediately and unconditionally” release opposition leader Kem Sokha from prison.
News Nov 28, 2017 Cambodian Rights Group Next in Firing Line (New Delhi Times) – Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party has already been dissolved and its senior members banned from politics, but the premier’s assault on critics shows no sign of abating.
News Nov 28, 2017 China Sentences Taiwanese Human Rights Activist in Subversion Case TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Chinese court sentenced a human rights activist from Taiwan to five years in prison Tuesday for state subversion, the first time China has convicted a Taiwanese citizen of that crime.
News Nov 28, 2017 Singapore charges activist for holding public assemblies, including a Skype talk with Joshua Wong The Police had engaged Wham prior to the event and advised him that a police permit was required.
Press Release Nov 28, 2017 On Giving Tuesday, support freedom and democracy And this year has given us much cause for hope. Saudi Arabia finally granted women the right to drive, after years of tireless work by campaigners like Havel Prize laureate Manal al-Sharif.
