With a grand total of 113 journalists currently in prison for press-related activities, the Chinese Communist Party has imprisoned over three times the combined total of all other nations on the map—that’s including neighboring communist Vietnam and Laos. Bringing population into light, China’s journalist imprisonment rate is 7.853⁻⁸ with East and Southeast Asia having a combined journalist imprisonment rate of 4.124⁻⁸.
Month: May 2020
Liberty: An Uncounted Fatality of COVID-19 in Central Asia
While failing to wear a mask in close quarters outdoors can result in arrest in many urban international centers across the world, donning a mask while waiting at a bus stop in Turkmenistan could result in jail time.
Among the last three nations to report no COVID-19 cases, the Turkmen government maintains the virus has no presence in the country. Ruled by dictator Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow since 2007, the government has gone as far as removing mention of the virus from public health brochures and pamphlets distributed in hospitals and school–just saying the word ‘coronavirus’ in public can result in arrest by plain-clothes police.
Hong Kong’s Lesson from Tibet: 69 Years ago Today
“This is the end of Hong Kong,” declared Hong Kong legislator Dennis Kwok in a press conference last Thursday.
The current state of political affairs in Hong Kong has never been darker. Beijing’s efforts to bypass Hong Kong’s independent legislature in passing a national security law would effectively end the principle of 1 country 2 systems that has enabled Hong Kong’s unique status and abilities. The proposal will make its way through China’s National People’s Congress—a rubber-stamp legislative body that meets to discuss policy serving the Communist party.
Liberty: An Uncounted Fatality of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia
Thai artist and gallery-operator, Danai Ussama, was arrested on the afternoon of March 23 while under self-quarantine in his home in Phuket
His crime?
Posting on Facebook that he and fellow passengers were not ushered through medical checks upon arriving at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.