Author Archive

HONG KONG, May 3 (Asia Media Forum) – Newspapers threatened with lawsuits across borders. Journalists feeling lost as they seek redress in cases where the state is less than impartial in investigating the killings of journalists. Media caught in attempts to use religion to curtail room for public debate. These are samples of the legal...
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BANGKOK, 23 January 2010 — The massacre of 31 journalists in Maguindanao, the Philippines, on 23 November 2009, most graphically illustrates the violence and impunity that threaten journalists not only in the Philippines, but throughout the region, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), the non-government organization that promotes press freedom in the...
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HO CHI MINH CITY, 21 January 2010 (AP) — Vietnam has convicted four democracy activists of trying to overthrow the communist government and sentenced them to up to 16 years in prison for promoting multiparty democracy. U.S.-trained human rights attorney Le Cong Dinh, the most well known of the four defendants, received a relatively light...
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21 January 2010 -- The Southeast Asian Media Legal Defense Network is shocked and disappointed at the five year prison sentence and a further 3 year house arrest imposed on our Vietnamese colleague Le Cong Dinh. The charges he stands accused of amount to no more than the promotion of freedom of expression and...
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BANGKOK, 23 November 2009 — “Even warlordism is but a symptom of the larger climate of impunity that threatens Filipinos, their media, and their democracy in general. For that toxic environment, the government must be held accountable.” The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the abduction and massacre of at...
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LONDON, 24 November 2009 — Article 19, the independent human rights organization that works globally to protect and promote freedom of expression, joins the international community in condemning the Maguindanao killings of dozens of civilians and journalists and calls on local and international authorities to take swift action to ensure that those responsible are...
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SINGAPORE, 7 October 2009 (Asia Sentinel) — As expected, a three-judge appellate panel has upheld a ruling that the Far Eastern Economic Review defamed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in a 2006 interview with Chee Soon Juan, the long-suffering secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party....
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BANGKOK, 14 September 2009 (Wall Street Journal) — Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism. Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet....
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WASHINGTON, D.C., 19 June 2009 – U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) called on the U.S. House of Representatives to join with the U.S. State Department in calling for the release of Le Cong Dinh and other prisoners in detention by Vietnamese authorities. Rep. Cao said that Mr. Dinh’s arrest contradicted Vietnam’s own “alleged commitment...
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LONDON, 17 June 2009 — ARTICLE 19, the independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote freedom of expression, has called for Vietnamese attorney Le Cong Dinh to be “immediately and unconditionally” released from police custody. According to its statement: “Dinh is a respected Vietnamese lawyer and human rights defender who has,...
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