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…
Tag: media
JAPAN: Finally Facing A Touchy Subject
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Social conduct dictates that people should avoid discussions of religion and politics, but should the media abide by these social laws too? This year will mark the 19th anniversary of the the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult’s toxic nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.…
VIETNAM: Paracel Islands for the Silenced People
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — It’s a new year and with Tet rounding the final corner, Vietnam can finally turn over a new leaf. Or it can indulge in more media constriction, give or take. This week marked the 40th anniversary of China’s invasion of Vietnam and its taking of the…
CAMBODIA: Lights, Camera, Oscar Nomination!
ARACELI PALAFOX WRITES – Amid political conflict and social uprising, Cambodia finds a sense of solidarity in the nation’s first Oscar nomination. Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s “The Missing Picture” is among the five final nominations in the “Best Foreign Language” film category. Panh’s “The Missing Picture” is a largely autobiographical work, telling the story…
INDIA & PAKISTAN: Female Journalists Face Dangers in the Field and Workplace
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – Though they’ve reported on floods, bombings, wars, and protests in some of the most dangerous places in the world, female journalists in Pakistan and India are still threatened and mistreated at home. Despite repeated calls for change from groups ranging from the United Nations to the Women’s…
‘Smokin’ Joe’ Jabs at China Treatment of U.S. Newsies
BEN SULLIVAN WRITES – U.S. journalists in China have long griped that the government picks on them. Specifically, they say, China retaliates against unfavorable coverage by withholding visas and access to top officials, barring reporters from important events, and even blocking the China editions of their employers’ web sites. The…
VIETNAM: Guerrilla Warefare on the Internet
YVONNE EPPS WRITES- Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, they just did. Vietnam’s war on peaceful protest has reached guerrilla warfare of the monetary kind. Hey, Uy’s atrocities were unforgivable, so why not take the rest of the Internet down, right? Two decrees have been posed against social…
NORTH KOREA: Public Executions Perpetuate Rumors
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – These days, public executions are all the rage in North Korea. Over the summer, twelve musicians were sent to the firing squad for producing porn. More recently, seven North Korean cities held public executions on the same day, killing approximately 80 people. What were the charges? The people…
TAIWAN: Murder-Kidnap Creates a Flurry from Media
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – Taiwanese people and media are outraged by the murder of a Taiwanese national and kidnapping of the victim’s wife in the Malaysian island of Pom Pom. Throughout late November, Taiwanese and Malaysian media covered the incident from all sides, ranging from international paper press, television news coverage…
CHINA: The New Era of Petitioning
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – It’s time for an upgrade to China’s decades-old petitioning system. According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China’s website, the State Bureau of Letters and Calls announced new reform measures that would be put into effect following the investigation of…
NEW ZEALAND: Spying Here, There, and Almost Everywhere
E.J. DE LARA WRITES – Several reports have criticized New Zealand for its intrusion of privacy. Many have raised concerns over Parliament passing a bill for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – the intelligence agency of the New Zealand government – to spy on people with a search warrant.…
AFGHANISTAN: Bombs Blow up People but Media Blows up Morality
VITTO BANEZ WRITES – Western Afghan religious leaders claim the media is displaying material that is un-Islamic. The mullahs assert that said material is inflicting more harm than a suicide bomb. Farouq Hussaini, the spokesman for the council of Muslim scholars, articulated this belief in his statement that “suicide attackers…
NORTH KOREA: First Lady Gone Wild?
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Rumors flew recently after several musicians in North Korea’s Unhasu Orchestra were executed for allegedly making porn. Because those killed reportedly included President Kim Jong-Un’s former girlfriend Hyon Song-wol, North Korea watchers said it may ultimately have tied back to the beloved leader’s current wife, Ri…
VIETNAM: The Human Rights War Continues! Article 258 Strikes Again
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — The results are in and, what do you know? Vietnam isn’t stepping forward to receive the award for Most Hypocritical Media Censorship! I’m sorry Mama Dinh; we really tried our best. Blogger activist, Dinh Nhat Uy, was given a 15-month suspended sentence and home arrest along…
CAMBODIA: A Call on the Political Elite for the Rights to Media Freedom
ARACELI PALAFOX WRITES – Want to figure out how democratic a country really is? You don’t have to go far. The freedom of its press goes a long way toward revealing its overall democratic values and practices. And in Cambodia, the lack of democracy has been revealed both at home…
INDIA: The Media’s Whitewashing of Beauty
Want to be happy with your life? Then according to Indian media, make sure to have fair skin. A legacy from India’s caste system, fair skin is still considered essential for success in business and love, and Indian media still spreads this message. Controversial products such as whitening creams are…