International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

A breakdown of the events that are changing the free expression landscape in Asia and the Pacific.

Ayub Khattak was killed in October 2013 over his reporting on the local drug scene; the conviction of his killer marks only the third such conviction in Pakistan, where the IFJ has recorded over 100 murders of journalists since 2000.

The Women’s Reporting Point allows victims to report threats using encrypted messaging.

A number of online media outlets and various student newspapers were recently barred entry to a centre where a by-election was being held, as the Hong Kong government does not recognise them as traditional media.

Free expression organisations join the Media Foundation for West Africa in calling on African regional body to pressure The Gambia to release journalist Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay.

A breakdown of the events that are changing the free expression landscape in Asia and the Pacific.

Demitrios Perros was severely attacked by unknown assailants on 4 February while covering a protest rally organized by public and private sector worker confederations.

Over 40 human rights groups and more than 75 international cartoonists are calling for leniency for Atena Farghadani, an Iranian cartoonist currently wrongfully jailed.

Three Yemeni journalists, who are held captive by the Houthis since last June, are reported to have been tortured on 30 January, according to the Yemen Journalists’ Syndicate (YJS), an IFJ affiliate.

One of the findings which is borne out of the report is the scant consideration for the levels of violence against journalists around the world, with just one of ten killings being investigated.

The IFJ’s newly released 2015 report is an annual analysis of press freedom and the ever increasing obstacles and challenges for journalists and media workers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

Civil society groups express concern over the potential for overbroad anti-extremism practices to limit free expression

From lethal attacks on the media in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the case of the missing Hong Kong publishers, to a campaign to block government interference with Australia’s national broadcaster, we present a month of events that are changing the free expression landscape in the region.

International free expression groups condemn the government’s refusal to allow supporters to visit journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who are behind bars for reports claiming that Turkey’s intelligence agency secretly armed Islamist rebel groups in Syria.

Unidentified attackers hurled a hand grenade at the Islamabad bureau office of ARY News. They also threw pamphlets claiming that the Islamic State’s Afghanistan chapter carried out the attack ‘in reaction to the channels coverage of on-going operation Zarb-e-Azb’.

Journalist Mohammad Al-Qiq was tortured during his detention, deprived from meeting a lawyer and denied family visits. As a sign of protest, he started a hunger strike on 25 November.