Category: Uncategorized
SRI LANKA: ‘The West Is Out to Get Us!’
Sure, the Sri Lankan government is in favor of manipulating the media to show its positive side. We’ve noted that tendency here before. But in this regard it is little different from governments all over the globe. Yet in another sense it seems determined to enter into a unique category:…
BANGLADESH: All Wild and Wireless from Dhaka
On Sunday, February 19th, the UNB Connect, the first fully computerized wire-service news source for Bangladesh, reported that third generation (3G) compatible mobile phones will be initially introduced in Bangladesh in April. The post and telecommunications minister, Razjuddin Ahmed Raju, told reporters that subscribers of Teletalk will be the first…
MALAYSIA: Journalists Accused of Prostitution… Or is it “Compensated Dating?”
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) of Malaysia’s national election publicity bureau chief Hew Kuan Yau apologized this week for posting remarks on Facebook in which he likened journalists to prostitutes. Hew allegedly claimed that his post, which was originally in Mandarin, never compared journalists to “prostitutes” but instead used the…
HONG KONG: Mainland Professor Says Hong Kongers Have Gone to the Dogs
Public Radio International’s The World reported on February 21st, that two viral videos depicting a verbal altercation between a Hong Kong native and a mother from Mainland China have fueled further animosity between the island and the Mainland. The controversy began on a subway train when a Hong Kong man…
BOOK REVIEW: TOO KIND … BY FAR!
This review of ‘Conversations with Thaksin’, in the Giants of Asia book series by Tom Plate, the founder of ASIA MEDIA, appeared in The National, a newspaper of the Gulf States based in Abu Dhabi. The reviewer is New Statesman writer Sholto Byrnes. The review ran as follows: Conversations with…
THE DEATH OF A GREAT JOURNALIST
Anthony Shadid, plagued much of his life by asthma, fell to a fatal asthma attack Feb 16 while on dangerous assignment in Syria. This acclaimed New York Times correspondent, who had previously worked at The Associated Press and The Boston Globe, had garnered many journalistic awards, including a Pulitzer Prize…
BANGLADESH: Frightened Journalists Threaten Retaliation
On Sunday, February 12th, the Daily Star, which is the first Bangladeshi Internet daily, reported that a journalist couple was murdered in their residency building in Dhaka. The couple’s five year old son found Sagar Sarowar and his wife, Meherun Runi, stabbed to death in their bedroom early Saturday morning.
HONG KONG: Government Accused of Playing Favorites in Election
With the high-profile territory’s fiercely fought election only a month away, the Hong Kong government denies trying to damage the chances of Leung Chun-ying to be elected chief executive, the top governmental job. The South China Morning Post, the influential and delightfully aggressive English-language Hong Kong newspaper, has been all…
KUWAIT: From Twitter Comment to Civil Unrest?
Behold the stinging power of the “pen,” even via Twitter: Kuwait is apparently in a national uproar over a Twitter comment by writer Mohamed Al-Mulaifi regarding Islamic religious icon Awaited Mahdi, Islam’s End Time prophet.
THAILAND: Military Puts TV Emphasis on ‘National Security’
In an interview, Lt.-General Chatchai Sarikulya, president of the military owned Royal Thai Army Radio and Television Channel 5, discusses changes facing the media network in the coming months. These changes are part of a broader transformation of the Thai media mandated by the government’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.…
MALAYSIA: Saudi Arabian Columnist Repatriated
Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced that columnist Mohammad Najeeb A. Kashgari is to be repatriated to his home country, Saudi Arabia. Kashgari, a 23 year old journalist, posted several tweets insulting Islam on the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. At the request of the Saudi Arabian government, the columnist had been…
BANGLADESH: Witnesses Disappear – International Crimes Tribunal Case Halted
On February 5th, 2012, the weekly Blitz, which is the only anti-jihadist newspaper of Bangladesh, reported that Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the leader of the extremist Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami, had testimonial evidence brought against him in the International Crimes Tribunal. One of the prosecution’s witnesses told the court that Sayedee and…
MALAYSIA: The Poster Boys Were Not Happy at All
The popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter were full of pictures and gossip items that triggered the scandal. In the end, ten people were nabbed for displaying offensive posters of Malaysian big-shots. They were Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the two co-chairmen of the Bersih 2.0 coalition…
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: World’s Largest Book (Literally) Debuts in Dubai
The world’s largest book entitled “This is Mohammad” (Peace Be Upon Him) written by Dr. Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al Musleh, the Secretary General of the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah in Riyadh, is set to hit the bookstores in late February in Dubai, as reported by the…
CHINA COLUMN: Front Page Treatment For Uncle Wen
On February 5, 2012, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Guangdong, a southern province in China, and pledged to push for suffrage rights for farmers. The China Daily reports this on the front page of the online English site, making it very obvious for readers to see.…