Five employees of Hong Kong publisher and bookseller Mighty Current have gone missing in the past few months, and international publishing and free speech organizations are now demanding answers as to their whereabouts. Editor Lee Bo disappeared last Wednesday, approximately…
Tag: asia
Sedition in 140 Characters or Less: Zunar on the Alarming State of Free Speech in Malaysia
“The Malaysian government has no sense of humor.” This is the polite way that cartoonist Zunar describes his home country’s current administration and their controversial and unjust treatment of free expression in a recent editorial piece he wrote for the…
Chinese Cartoonist Deported from Thailand, Jailed in China
Two Chinese dissidents, including political cartoonist Jiang Yefei, were deported from Thailand back to China last month despite having been granted refugee status by the United Nations. Jiang and fellow pro-democracy activist Dong Guangping were imprisoned upon their return to…
Indian Graphic Novelist Celebrates Artistic Nudes After Facebook Censorship
One of India’s best-known graphic novelists fell afoul of Facebook’s whimsical moderation regarding artistic nudity last week when the social media giant, acting on an anonymous user report, removed his work which showed a woman getting dressed. Orijit Sen and…
Zunar in U.S. to Receive CPJ International Press Freedom Award
With his future hinging on a legal challenge to Malaysia’s Sedition Act, cartoonist Zunar is currently in the United States to accept an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists tonight. Last week he and the other…
Top Malaysian Court Finds No Justification for Ban on Zunar Books
Malaysia’s highest court this week upheld a lower court’s lifting of a ban on two cartoon books by Zunar, Perak Darul Kartun and 1 Funny Malaysia. The five-judge panel of the Federal Court ruled that the Home Ministry had shown…
Chinese Cartoonist Walks a Fine Line with Subversively Cute Art
Unsurprisingly, independent political cartoonists are few and far between in China. The country’s best-known cartoonist, Rebel Pepper, has been exiled in Japan for over a year due to implicit threats from his own government. But his experience has not deterred…
Zunar Launches Legal Challenge to Malaysia’s Sedition Act
The sedition trial of Malaysian cartoonist Zunar, which was set to begin today, has been delayed yet again as he and two other defendants launched another challenge to the country’s Sedition Act, a vestige of Malaysia’s colonial past. A court…
UN Envoy Recommends Japanese Ban on Some Manga and Anime
A UN special envoy on child protection waded into the debate over manga and anime in Japan this week, urging the country to ban “particular, extreme child pornographic content” even if it does not involve any actual children. In a…
Human Rights Watch Report Skewers Malaysia’s “Culture of Fear”
A searing new 143-page report from Human Rights Watch is shining a spotlight on the Malaysian government’s selective use of vague laws to suppress speech it doesn’t like — notably from cartoonist Zunar, who next week faces trial on nine…