Threats, pressure, violence and prison: the daily life of Asia's "information heroes"
Phnom Penh ( AsiaNews / Agencies) - A young Cambodian reporter, victim of repeated attacks for denouncing human rights violations and a Burmese journalist jailed for having conducted an investigation are among this year's 100 "information heroes". This list was drawn up by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), to mark the World Press Freedom Day this May 3. The Paris-based agency also wanted to reward a Buddhist monk and Tibetan activist, who made a documentary that chronicles the plight of Tibetans under the Beijing regime; Special mentions are also made of three Chinese journalists and three Vietnamese colleagues, forced to work under increasingly difficult government press restrictions.
RSF
secretary-general, Christophe Deloire, said that "World Press Freedom Day
... should be an occasion for paying tribute to the courage of the journalists
and bloggers who constantly sacrifice their safety and sometimes their lives to
their vocation". The
organization asks not only to support the victims of abuse, but at the same
time to celebrate those who can be a model and inspiration for other
colleagues.
The youngest reporter to be honored this year is the 25 -year-old Cambodian photo - journalist Oudom Tat, who has catalogued a long longstanding land dispute in Phnom Penh and other provinces of the country. In 2011 he collaborated with the Voice of Democracy , one of the few independent radio stations to advance criticism of the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. He also denounced the terrible conditions of workers in the textile industry and covered long legal battles over land ownership . For this he has been the victim of "repeated threats and attacks " since the beginning of 2013.
A special mention is given to the long-running Burmese reporter Zaw Phay, who has been following the 2007 Saffron Revolution and its aftermath on an independent website based in Norway, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) . In 2010 he was sentenced to three years in prison for filming "without permission" a water crisis in the region of Magway in central Myanmar. Released on pardon in 2012 , he was again imprisoned and sentenced this month for his work on an investigation regarding a school program funded by a Japanese institution.
According to the special report prepared in recent months by the RFS, which examines 180 countries in the world, in 2013 China and Vietnam further tightened controls on press freedom. The Communist regime in Beijing is in 173th place down from 175th, due to the increasing censorship imposed by the leaders of the party who have imprisoned prominent dissidents, including Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Vietnam is at 174th place (last year it was 172th) , having tightened controls on information "along the lines of its Big Chinese brother". The Asian nation is the second country in the world for number of journalists and bloggers in prison. Myanmar stood at 145th position (climbing nine steps), while Cambodia fell to 144th position compared to 143rd in 2013.
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24/01/2007
