Well, at least China — to our knowledge — does not kill its journalists, or at least its foreign media. Imprisonment or expulsion: that's another issue.
From the forced departure of U.S. journalist Austin Ramzy from China in January, ostensibly for visa reasons — but perhaps more as a pointed signal to others who report too freely on issues such as corruption — to the continued Chinese imprisonment, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, of more than 30 local reporters, editors and bloggers, the year is shaping up already as a year of living dangerously for media in Asia.
In early February, local journalist Suon Chan was killed in Cambodia after having reported on illegal fishing activities near his village. Another longtime foreign journalist has gone missing. And in the Philippines, justice has yet to be fully served in the more than 70 cases of murdered journalists since 1992, including that of my friend, radio commentator Jerry Ortega.