Concern as Vietnam plays 'national security' censorship card

Concern as Vietnam plays 'national security' censorship card


Bangkok, January 13, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a new executive decree issued on January 6 in Vietnam that will give authorities greater powers to penalize journalists, editors, and bloggers who report on issues deemed as sensitive to national security. The new media regulations were issued amid a mounting clampdown on dissent shortly before Wednesday's opening of the 2011 Communist Party Congress.
"Ultimately, this new decree aims to increase government control over Vietnam's already over-regulated and highly suppressed media," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's Senior Southeast Asia Representative. "The language of the decree is overly broad and represents the government's latest use of rule by law justifications to limit press freedom, including over the Internet."
The 44-page decree outlines new monetary penalties for journalists who refuse to divulge their news sources or publish articles under pseudonyms. The new restrictions, included in the decree's Article 7, aim specifically at the country's burgeoning blogosphere, where many bloggers publish under pseudonyms to avoid possible government reprisals.
The decree builds on a December 2008 Information Ministry directive that aimed to bring online media under the same censorship regime imposed on the traditional media, including a ban on posting vaguely and broadly defined state secrets and requirements that ISPs maintain databases of individual blogs for state surveillance purposes.
Language in the decree's Article 5 makes sharp distinctions between the rights of journalists accredited to the government and independent bloggers, online reporters, and freelancers. Article 6 spells out set monetary penalties for actions that impede on newspaper operations, including the intimidation of reporters and unlawful seizure of their properties, but the protections notably do not extend to unaccredited reporters.
The decree will take full effect on February 25 and supersede any similar decrees issued in the past, according to a copy of the decree reviewed by CPJ.
In 2009, CPJ ranked Vietnam as the sixth worst country to be a blogger. The country maintains some of the world's strictest Internet controls, including blocks on Facebook and several other Vietnamese-language websites, including those run by organizations critical of the government. At least five politically oriented bloggers were among dozens of activists held on national security-related charges, including "spreading propaganda against the state and "abusing democratic freedoms," CPJ data show.

On behalf of CPJ, From Dacca, Bangladesh.

UNEXPECTABLE ANTI EXPRESION AGAINST ELECTRICITY & POWER MINISTRY OF BANGLADESH.

UNEXPECTABLE ANTI EXPRESION AGAINST ELECTRICITY & POWER MINISTRY OF BANGLADESH.


Recently, in reliable media source published an unexpected anti-expression, non logistic demad shown for the electricity & power against concerned ministry of Bangladesh.After climate where the many developed countries are failing to maintain such mentioed cases around the whole world, like Bangladesh a limited developing country and its government how would answer such approaches. though the ruling government iplementing its maximum possible efforts to resolve the unfinished tasks of before's (Narayanganj Power Station already establishing by the H' PM of the country) and going to implement other resources i.e. solar (Korea,China, etc), coal,gas, water and other reproducable power from waste from its own and partners, its unfortunate can be said not only for the whole nation but also for such shoing bad approach against government then whole pupils needings.We have to jointly a sitting from bothsides to find out the solution how to face such global and national issue. By showing anti rally would not bring the prosper for the country but also to divert of combined appoaches taken by the ruling government "MOHAZOTT" and its global partners, only would damage the speed and spirit of going ahead of the state, digitally.

Muktidooth....

CPJ asks Obama to raise jailed Chinese journalists with Hu

Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Via facsimile: +1 202-456-2461

Dear President Obama:

The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you in advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States in January to urge you to raise press freedom issues during your talks. We ask that you make clear the depth of U.S. concern that China is the world's leading jailer of journalists.
Obama and Hu in 2010. (Reuters)
Obama and Hu in 2010. (Reuters)

During your visit to China in November 2009, at a town hall meeting, you defended the right of people to freely access information, saying that the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become. In a follow-up speech, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called that belief in the free flow of information a "ground truth" for the United States.

With at least 34 journalists and commentators imprisoned in China, the nation shares with Iran the dishonor of being the world's worst jailer of journalists, CPJ's most recent survey shows. In addition to the well-known case of imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, the number of journalists behind bars was propelled by the jailing of Uighur and Tibetan journalists covering ethnic issues and regional unrest.

Liu's case is indicative of the pressures journalists working online face in China. During the 2009 trial that resulted in his 11-year conviction on charges of inciting subversion against the state, prosecutors cited articles he had published on overseas websites. Vague anti-state allegations were used to imprison more than half the 34 journalists CPJ documented in Chinese jails on December 1, 2010. Within that group, 25 worked online.

China's record of imprisoning its domestic critics is not improving--the disproportionate targeting of Uighur and Tibetan writers by Chinese authorities began with the unrest in their respective regions in 2008 and 2009. Journalists from these ethnic minorities account for all but one of 13 arrests recorded in 2009 and 2010. Information about their trials is censored and in many cases their whereabouts and legal status are not confirmed.

Beyond imprisonment, we note with concern other recent signs of a persistent anti-information stance from China's central government:

Internet censorship

Since April 2010, Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office, told the standing committee of the National People's Congress that the office plans to step up online propaganda and legal checks on the Internet--a plan not announced publicly and later deleted from online accounts, according to New York-based advocacy group Human Rights in China.

Strengthened state secrets law

Revisions to ill-defined state secrets laws took effect in October 2010. Authorities retained the power to retroactively classify information already in the public domain, leaving journalists and activists vulnerable to prosecution for published articles. The revisions to the law require telecommunications companies to intervene to restrict the transmission of state secrets. This could lead to cases like that of journalist Shi Tao, whose 2005 10-year imprisonment for leaking secrets abroad was based on e-mail account information provided to Chinese police by Yahoo's Hong Kong subsidiary. He had sent overseas propaganda department news directives, which were retroactively classified, according to CPJ research.

Sanctions against professional journalists

Economic Observer Senior Web Editor Zhang Hong was suspended, and Bao Yueyang, chief editor and publisher of the China Economic Times was reshuffled to a different post in 2010, according to CPJ research. Zhang had publicly signed a controversial editorial; Bao had published an investigative report.

Even while independent viewpoints are heavily penalized, Chinese media are evolving and strengthening. Chinese officials increasingly acknowledge domestic journalists' rights to work freely, according to a CPJ report in 2010. The General Administration of Press and Publication, a state agency that regulates print media, is outwardly supportive of rights for Chinese journalists operating within the officially sanctioned media. In 2010, its website showed support for journalists who had been physically menaced for negative coverage: "News organizations have the right to know, interview, cover, criticize, and monitor events regarding national and public interest." With support from Hu, these statements could develop into something more than empty rhetoric.

We note that in November 2009, your interview with a reporter from Southern Weekly, an aggressive news outlet based in Guangzhou, sent a powerful message to the Chinese people that you support a more independent media.

We urge you to build on these efforts and reiterate to Hu that to truly support journalists' rights he must intervene to release the 34 journalists being held in China's prisons and prevent the continued use of anti-state charges against journalists, including independent freelancers. China must allow free and independent news reporting to continue to engage productively with the U.S.

Sincerely,

Joel Simon
Executive Director

Bangladesh Meical Developing Innitiatives

REPORTER’S WORKSHOP: The 2012 Federal Budget

Date: 9:45 am – 12:15 PM Monday January 10th, 2011
Location: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
Underwritten by: The David Swit Foundation
Click here to register. Space is limited.
Join us for a crash course in understanding the federal budget. Get a preview of the politics and issues that will influence the spending blueprint for fiscal 2012. The panel discussions will include Q&A as Washington insiders address your questions during this free, half-day workshop. The panelists include: Joseph Minarik of the Committee for Economic Development, Thomas S. Kahn (Democrat) and Austin Smythe (Republican) of the House Budget Committee, and Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Moderated by: Martin Kady, Congressional Bureau Chief, POLITICO. Click here for more info.

APPLY NOW: Best Energy Writing Award

Deadline: January 31st, 2011
Click here to apply.
Apply now for the Thomas L. Stokes Award for the best newspaper writing on the subject of energy. The subject may be any form of energy—oil, gas, coal, nuclear, water, solar, etc. The writing may be reporting, analysis or commentary and can consist of one to three articles on unrelated subjects, or one series of articles on a related subject. The winner of the Award receives $1,000 and a citation. The work must have been published in the U.S. between January 1 and December 31, 2010.


(Source:NPF)