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NORTHEAST ASIA
Long-overdue action on UN recommendations
In its opinion adopted at its 96th session on April 4, 2023, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (WGAD) called out Hong Kong authorities for the arrest and detention of activist Chow Hang-tung over alleged violations of Beijing’s sweeping national security law.
A year later rights groups led by CIVICUS, Asia Democracy Network (ADN), and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-Asia) urged the city government to heed the WGAD’s recommendations to release Chow without conditions.
“We implore the government to drop all charges against her and halt the repressive actions she faces,” the groups said in a statement. “It is imperative that the government rectify this situation immediately, release Chow Hang-Tung, and provide her with due compensation and reparations in accordance with international law.”
Chow, a human rights lawyer, was among the pro-democracy activists caught in the crosshairs of the Hong Kong government amid its tightening grip ever since China imposed NSL in 2020.
Since her arrest in September 2021, she has endured a string of harsh punishments, including a 12-month jail sentence for participating in a peaceful vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre; and a 15-month sentence for supposedly “inciting others” to join a similar vigil through her writings.
These disproportionate sentences, the group said, made it clear that she was being targeted for her activism. Now, she faces yet another trial under the NSL, accused of the vague offense of “inciting subversion of state power.”
Chow’s case underscores the deteriorating state of civic freedoms in Hong Kong since the implementation of the draconian NSL in 2020, whose threats were amplified after the city implemented its own “homegrown” NSL version known as Article 23 just last March.
This law has been weaponized against numerous activists, journalists, and critics, including media mogul and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai; pro-democracy activists Agnes Chow, Joshua Wong, and Nathan Law.
A new report by the CIVICUS Monitor has rated Hong Kong’s civic space “closed,” reflecting the alarming erosion of freedoms in the special administrative region. U.N. experts as well as local human rights groups have also called on the city to rescind Article 23 and to drop all NSL-related charges filed against activists.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
A much-needed review of repressive laws
A local media rights organization has challenged the new unity government in Malaysia to initiate a “comprehensive reform” of laws that restrict freedom of expression and media freedom. This call comes after the country slid down 30 spots in the annual World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders.
In a statement on May 3, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia urged the government to abolish draconian legislation which has been weaponized against journalists. These include the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984; Sedition Act of 1949; Official Secrets Act of 1972; and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act.
These laws as well as other repressive state measures like revoking media passes and blocking online websites, CIJ said, have led to the press “living under a culture of threat and fear.”
“Malaysia and its government must seek to improve its bleak RSF World Press Freedom Index ranking. [We] urge the government to lift the culture of fear and threats as we move towards creating a free, independent and enabling environment for media to ensure ethical reporting,” CIJ executive director Wathshlah Naidu said.
The letter comes after RSF’s annual index, released in time for World Press Freedom Day on May 3, saw Malaysia slide from 73rd in 2023 to 107th in 2024 among 180 countries.
The media watchdog noted that while Malaysian journalists were rarely the target of physical attacks, many are subjected to judicial harassment made possible by the laws flagged by CIJ.
These laws have long been flagged by rights groups as containing overbroad and vaguely worded provisions that enable the state to investigate and arrest people for, among others, organizing public protests and reporting on alleged government or public officials’ wrongdoings. This was the case for two Malaysiakini journalists, who were summoned in 2021 over their reports on police brutality that led to the death of a 40 year old man.
Recently, the Malaysian government launched a revised Code of Ethics for Journalists, which local media organizations fear could be used to extend state control over their reporting such as by forcing journalists to reveal their sources or to rescind media accreditation passes.
SOUTH ASIA
Protecting big industry workers
On International Workers’ Day, May 1, Amnesty International called on Bangladesh to address the dire situation of its garment workers, who struggle not only with unsafe conditions and low wages, but also with state crackdowns on their right to organize.
In a report published on Labor Day, Amnesty International urged the government to, among others, ensure that workers who suffer workplace injuries and deaths receive compensation and to allow them to organize freely without fear of reprisals.
“Most workers today are still fighting for decent wages in an industry that brings the most revenue to Bangladesh and paying a heavy price for fighting for their rights,” said Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia.
There are currently some 4 million workers employed in Bangladesh’s garment factories, which prop up its largest export industry. Despite this, these workers make only 8,300 takas (US$75) in monthly wages, and they often work in factories that have inadequate safety measures.
This was the case for the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy, considered the deadliest garment factory disaster in history, where the eponymous eight-story building collapsed and killed over 1,100 people. To date, many of the victims’ families have yet to receive compensation.
Growing dissatisfaction with their working conditions prompted a nationwide strike in October 2023 only to be met with brutality by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration, as factory owners and police threatened and beat them up to break up the protests.
At least three garment workers were killed after being shot by police during the first wave of the strike while owners applied a “no work, no pay” rule to squeeze out the demonstrators. Hasina likewise rejected their demands for higher pay and warned them to accept their offer to raise minimum wages to 12,500 takas (US$113) or “go back to the village.”
The United States, the biggest export destination of Bangladesh’s ready-to-wear apparel, has denounced Hasina’s administration for “criminaliz(ing) legitimate worker and trade union activities.” Both the U.S. Congress and the European Union also threatened sanctions if systemic human rights violations persist in the industry.
GLOBAL / REGIONAL
Upending impunity versus environmental journalists
A new UNESCO report published on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day paints a grim picture of the plight of journalists covering environmental issues – still the second most dangerous journalistic field after war reporting. Many of the gross human rights violations against them are perpetrated by the state.
The report, “Press and Planet in Danger,” challenges states to investigate all cases of violence against environmental journalists, and to cease weaponizing laws and policies against them such as through imprisonments, restricting media access, and forced media shutdowns.
“(We) underscore the critical need for greater protection and support for journalists and media outlets as they continue to cover environmental issues and thus advocate for a sustainable future,” the report said.
The report found that over 749 journalists and media outlets were targeted worldwide – by murder, violence, arrests, online harassment, and legal attacks – from 2009 to 2023. In that same period, 44 environmental journalists were killed in 15 different countries, with only five cases leading to convictions.
Of these deaths, 30 came from Asia-Pacific countries. UNESCO noted that the journalists killed in Asia were primarily covering mining, deforestation, and land conflicts.
It also found that for every ten attacks against reporters worldwide, state actors were the perpetrators in at least five, especially when the cases pertain to arbitrary detentions, assault, harassment, and other legal attacks.
While the report does not cite specific case studies, it provides measurable evidence of what’s happening on the ground, especially in Asia. It also squared with an earlier study by Reporters Without Borders, which said all but two of the 10 environmental journalists killed from 2010 to 2019 were from Asia.
One of them was Filipino environmental journalist Gerry Ortega, who was a staunch critic of mining on the southern island of Palawan and who was shot down after his morning broadcast in 2011.
Vietnam and Cambodia, specifically, have gained notoriety for targeting and imprisoning environmental journalists. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Vietnam – already the fifth worst jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists – “has decided anyone leading efforts to combat climate change … is somewhat politically opposed to the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party.”
In neighboring Cambodia, environmental reporters were a particular nuisance to the former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government, which saw environmental activism as a springboard for political dissent.
