JAPAN: Social Media Backlash Over Dolphin Slaughter
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Spreading awareness of animal cruelty through hashtags can make an issue go viral faster than you can say “Save the Dolphins.” If you’ve seen the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, you’re familiar with Japan’s yearly Taiji Cove dolphin slaughter. Despite numerous pleas by nature conservation groups…
Full Article JAPAN: Social Media Backlash Over Dolphin SlaughterPHILIPPINES: Governmental Corruption Strikes Again, But Hope Remains
TREVOR ISBELL WRITES – The Philippine government suffers from further acts of corruption as an incognito rice smuggler, David Tan, has finally been identified as successful businessman Davidson Bangayan. However obvious his involvement with the rice smuggling has been, Bangayan has yet to be arrested on any smuggling charges. Rather,…
Full Article PHILIPPINES: Governmental Corruption Strikes Again, But Hope RemainsINDIA: Bogus Beijing Story Fogs Attention of Delhi’s Real Pollution Problem
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – A misleading story about Beijing’s virtual sunrise earned more press than Friday’s report naming New Delhi the world’s most polluted big city. The Daily Mail’s inaccurate story claimed that China’s government digitally simulates the sunrise on television screens throughout Beijing since its pollution blocks natural sunlight. Major…
Full Article INDIA: Bogus Beijing Story Fogs Attention of Delhi’s Real Pollution ProblemHONG KONG: Mainland’s War on Hong Kong Publications
LAUREN CHEN WRITES – Mainland authorities continue to usurp Hong Kong press freedom by silencing dissenting voices. Publisher Yao Wentian was arrested on what appear to be bogus charges of smuggling prohibited items, and has been detained for almost three months. Wentian is head of Morning Bell Press, a Hong Kong…
Full Article HONG KONG: Mainland’s War on Hong Kong PublicationsNORTH KOREA: That Time of the Year
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Nothing says “stop it” like a country threatening to nuke its neighbor for taking part in a military drill. This is how North Korea responded to this year’s Foal Eagle exercise, which is an annual military drill held in South Korea between its forces and those from…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: That Time of the YearQATAR: The UAE is NOT Happy
ALEXANDRE GUIRAUD-COINTREAU WRITES – The United Arab Emirates has been insulted and demands the offender stop: Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and head of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated International Federation of Muslim Scholars (IFMS), Yousuf Al Qaradawi, who resides in Doha. According to Gulf Times, the clash began over the topic of the…
Full Article QATAR: The UAE is NOT HappyLEBANON: A ‘Selfie’ Protest to Stop the Violence
NICOLE SABA WRITES – It all started with a series of deadly car bombings that happened in December. Other than the target of the initial explosion – Mohammed Chatah, former Finance Minister of Lebanon – four others lost their lives that day. Among them was Mohammed Chaar, a sixteen-year-old boy,…
Full Article LEBANON: A ‘Selfie’ Protest to Stop the ViolenceTHAILAND: A Clean Sweep
ELIZABETH NAAI WRITES – A Yellow-shirt “boy’s club” has Thailand’s Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, in its cross hairs. Democrat party leaders and public spokespersons air Yingluck’s dirty laundry as a further attempt to delegitimize her and undermine the February 2nd snap election. Khao Sod daily newspaper released a video of Somchai…
Full Article THAILAND: A Clean SweepFormer Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin: Why did they have to do that?
In December 2010, in his exile home in Emirate Hills, a suburb of Dubai, former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sat down with American journalist Tom Plate for an exclusive series of five two-hour interviews that became the basis of the controversial book “Conversations with Thaksin” (Marshall Cavendish Singapore, 2011).…
Full Article Former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin: Why did they have to do that?THAILAND: Blue Bloods Versus New Bloods
ELIZABETH NAAI WRITES – The “Bangkok shutdown” is drawing a darker, deeper line between the country’s rural, poor, pro-government Red Shirts, and the reform-oriented Yellow Shirts. While strong influences of sadkina (ศักดินา) – Thai feudalism – make corruption an old friend in Thailand’s national politics, reform is still a new beast…
Full Article THAILAND: Blue Bloods Versus New BloodsPHILIPPINES: Poverty Contributes to Child Pornography
TREVOR ISBELL WRITES – The sexual abuse of young Filipino children has long been an income source for some of the country’s poorest inhabitants. The country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) stated that “Extreme poverty, the increasing availability of high-speed Internet and the existence of a vast and comparatively wealthy overseas…
Full Article PHILIPPINES: Poverty Contributes to Child PornographyWOMEN OF ASIA: Can “Dragon Ladies” be Taken Seriously?
ELODIE INTROIA WRITES – Today, 23 of the 100 most powerful women in the world are Asian. Among that group are political leaders, heads of large corporations and philanthropists. Yet, despite their different backgrounds, they all work towards redefining the role of the modern Asian woman. Although Asian women have won political…
Full Article WOMEN OF ASIA: Can “Dragon Ladies” be Taken Seriously?UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: UAE Presents “The W*** of W*** S*****”
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – The Wolf of Wall Street, the contentious, prize-winning film directed by Martin Scorsese, was released in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with significant scene deletions and other adjustments. Due to the film’s abundant use of derogative language (over 500 curse words) and lurid scenes of drug abuse…
Full Article UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: UAE Presents “The W*** of W*** S*****”BANGLADESH: Journalists Under Arrest
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – Three Bangladeshi journalists were arrested January 16 for publishing what Information Minister Hansanul Huq Inu called a “baseless” story. The story in question was a report in the online and print editions of the pro-opposition Daily Inqilab that Indian security forces had helped Bangladeshi officials contain…
Full Article BANGLADESH: Journalists Under ArrestHONG KONG: Chinese Communist Party Supporter as Chief Newspaper Editor?
LAUREN CHEN WRITES – Kevin Lau Chun, editor in chief of the Ming Pao newspaper, transferred suddenly to the parent company’s new unit for electronic books and teaching materials. This action has been perceived as a threat to editorial independence. Word on the street is that Lau’s replacement will be Chong Tien-siong, Malaysian journalist and…
Full Article HONG KONG: Chinese Communist Party Supporter as Chief Newspaper Editor?PAKISTAN: Death of Tribune Staffers Underscores Dangers of Reporting
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – The deaths of three reporters at the hands of Taliban gunmen Jan. 17 is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks designed to silence anti-Taliban reporting in the afflicted country. On Friday, a group of gunmen on motorcycles shot into the van of three Express Tribune…
Full Article PAKISTAN: Death of Tribune Staffers Underscores Dangers of Reporting