Human Rights

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.

By Bhuwan Sharma

KATHMANDU, Mar 9 (Asia Media Forum) - The climate of fear that has been growing in this Himalayan country since the murder of two media entrepreneurs and other attacks on journalists may well push them to turn to more self-censorship.

  By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Asia Media Forum) — The confiscation and banning of books by Malaysian authorities is sending alarm bells ringing among activists, who want the repeal of laws that the government is using to suppress freedom of expression.

By Kafil Yamin

JAKARTA, Feb 17, 2010 (IPS) - It is every parent’s worst nightmare in the Internet age – and for Syafei Asyhari, this happened when he found that his 16-year-old daughter, Latifa, fell into the clutches of traffickers she met online as friends.

By Deepak Adhikari     

Publishers and editors of Kantipur Publications in Nepal have been told to stop reporting on the circumstances surrounding the murder on Feb. 7 of Nepali media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, who was assassinated in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

'Thai E-News: News about Thailand that you may not have read in the news' is the slogan of one of Thailand's leading political websites. It has only content and no web board. It is unabashedly 'red', but red with a strange smell. It posts critical points of view from all circles.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa does not seem inclined to be particularly magnanimous towards the media following his re-election by a handsome majority. If the watching world was looking for any positive signals in this regard what it got was the opposite, writes the editors at 'The Hoot' on Jan. 31.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) reported on Jan. 18 that the Google e-mail accounts of at least two foreign journalists have fallen prey to hackers, who are said to have attempted "sophisticated attacks" on the popular online site's security system.

   By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, May 4 (Asia Media Forum) - Till two months back, Shireen Zada of the private television channel Express News would carry a pistol wherever he did coverage from the restive valley of Swat in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

   “But the day the peace accord was signed between the Taliban and the government, on February 16, I put away my gun,” he said.