The Media Alliance

20/10/2022

It appears that India is not only heading down the path of restricting freedom of speech but also restricting the freedom of journalists to travel.

Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was due to attend the award ceremony in the US.

30/10/2021

01/06/2021

A 30-year-old journalist who won AFP's Kate Webb award in 2017 for his outstanding coverage of the ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar will fly to Spain today to seek political asylum after Myanmar's military junta issued a warrant for his arrest. Mratt Kyaw Thu, who worked for the Spanish news agency EFE, will ask for asylum in Spain after having an asylum request in Germany turned down. He is just one of many journalists who have been forced to flee Yangon after arrest warrants were issued by the junta.

Myanmar journalist to seek asylum in Spain

29/05/2021

A total of 88 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar since the military overthrew the civilian government, with more than half still in detention. Those held include Danny Fenster, the managing editor of top independent news site Frontier Myanmar, who was detained Monday at Yangon International Airport while preparing to board a flight to Malaysia. He was transferred to Yangon's Insein Prison. Amnesty International has called on the military junta to release those journalists who were detained for solely carrying out their work.

Amnesty International is calling on Myanmar’s military junta to immediately drop all charges against journalists who have been detained since the February 1 coup. The human rights organization said Thursday the “ongoing persecution, intimidation, harassment and violence” that journalists are f...

27/05/2021

Harassing and threatening the families of exiled journalists is a despicable way of trying to undermine their work. As a spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Journalists says in this report: "Instead of diverting vast resources into tracking and persecuting critical voices, Turkmen authorities should focus on addressing the serious social and political issues that these voices raise."

The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined human rights organizations in urging the authoritarian leadership of Turkmenistan to end the practice of threatening and harassing exiled journalists' family members and allow all journalists living abroad to return to the country and work in safety.

24/05/2021

Freed Japanese freelance journalist, Yuki Kitazumi, told an online news conference hosted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Friday that inmates at Yangon's Insein Prison are being tortured by the military. He said they would be blindfolded, have their hands handcuffed behind their back, and be forced to kneel on concrete floors. And then if they denied any of the accusations being made against them, they would be struck with a stick. He said the military continues this for two or three days straight. He said his arrest was a way to convey a threat to other foreign journalists.

Yuki Kitazumi used feather and coffee to take notes while detained

22/05/2021

This is appalling. The arrest of Rozina Islam, a Bangladeshi investigative reporter who is known for unearthing government corruption, occurred after she wrote scathing stories on Bangladesh’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. She faces up to 14 years in prison and the death penalty if formally charged and convicted.

Rozina Islam has been accused of stealing documents after she unearthed corruption in health ministry during COVID-19.

16/05/2021

A harrowing account by an Associated Press journalist who was given 10 minutes to evacuate his office before it was bombed by the Israelis. Numerous AP and Al Jazeera journalists have stated that there was no evidence that their building was being used by Hamas militants. They say the destruction of their offices was clearly an effort by the Israeli government to muzzle the media reporting from Gaza.

My colleagues' shouts awakened me, and the pounding of my heart drowned out the racing of my mind. What was happening? Had someone been injured on the streets of Gaza City, or worse, writes Fares Akram.

22/03/2021

In Myanmar it has been difficult for news organisations to report on what has been happening since the military staged its coup to oust the elected government. With dozens of reporters arrested and rolling internet blackouts continuing, the outside world has had to rely on citizen journalists and their phone cameras to reveal the brutality of what is happening to the people of Myanmar. Aljazeera’s ‘The Listening Post’ takes a look at what is happening on the ground.

Myanmar’s military leaders are deploying forces, both armed and digital, to stifle news coverage.

17/02/2021

We personally know of several journalists who are currently reporting from Myanmar but who are in hiding from fear of being arrested by the military. They are moving between safe houses every few days. There is currently no freedom of movement in Myanmar and no freedom to report unless aligned to the military. With internet links to the outside world being regularly cut off, there are long periods where we fear for their safety and well being because we have no way of knowing whether their silence is because they have no way of getting messages out, or whether they have been arrested.

Journalist Toe Zaw Latt, an Australian citizen, fears he will become a target as the Myanmar military escalates its crackdown on protests after seizing power in a coup.

12/02/2021

A shout out to Twitter for refusing to comply with Indian Government directives to close down the accounts of The Caravan magazine and other journalists in India. The Caravan is a respected investigative journalism magazine that won the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism awarded by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. As is sadly the case in many countries in Asia, publications in India that are critical of the government are receiving threats and lawsuits in attempts to stifle them. These publications are often the only true watchdogs against corruption and political mismanagement in those countries.

Two weeks ago, protests by farmers in India turned violent, even as the country was celebrating the anniversary of its democratic constitution. As thousands marched and drove their tractors through New Delhi, police responded with tear gas and batons, and a young farmer was killed. The protests drew...

08/02/2021

Keeping a journalist locked up in a cell for six months without fresh air or natural light is inhumane. And when the charges subsequently laid are so vague that the journalist's family has no idea what she has supposedly done to be incarcerated, the whole situation smacks of political vindictiveness. Unfortunately when this happens in China, there is little that the world can do to protect human rights.

The family of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who has been detained in China on national security grounds, has broken their silence, saying her children are devastated by her absence and keep asking when she is coming home.