Thai Journalists Association

Shutting down media channels and banning critical commentary on the political situation in Thailand is misdirected and an overreaction, SEAPA warns.

Over 50 member and partner organisations of FORUM-ASIA and SEAPA have released an open letter raising serious concern about recent developments in Cambodia, as the country gears up for the National Assembly Elections on 28 July 2013.

As trial proceeds, over forty IFEX members urge the Cambodian government to drop charges facing detained rights defender and broadcaster Mam Sonando.

UPDATE: The president of IFEX member Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on 16 August. Many other human rights defenders remain in prison, including BCHR’s founder Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and his daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja.

Amid divisive ideas and political ideologies that have led to the use of violence, the local media are now having difficulties, as several conflicting political parties have started their own media businesses including newspapers, satellite-broadcast televisions and social media.

SEAPA’s letter urged President Benigno Aquino III to support the global campaign and ensure the Ampatuan trial marks a first step to ending journalists’ killings.

In a letter to the prime minister, free expression advocates and media practitioners expressed alarm over recent arrests of nationals and foreigners on trumped-up charges for supporting calls for electoral reform.

Representatives from the international community of journalists’ organisations and press freedom defenders gathered in Lebanon for IFEX’s bi-annual conference and urged the Pakistani government and its law-enforcement and security agencies to take immediate action to implement all appropriate measures to protect media personnel and to prosecute murderers of journalists.