Report: Press Freedom Declines Across Asia
NPR reports that press freedom across the Asia‑Pacific is deteriorating, citing a Reporters Without Borders analysis showing journalist detentions climbed from 69 in 2010 to 334 in 2022 (300 last year). The piece highlights high‑profile cases such as Chinese citizen‑journalist Zhang Zhan—recently hit with another four‑year sentence—and flags countries driving the trend (China, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Vietnam), while noting implications for U.S. policy as Washington has reduced funding for independent regional media and Chinese surveillance techniques spread beyond its borders.
International
Human Rights
🔍 Key Facts
- RSF data: journalist and media‑worker detentions rose from 69 in 2010 to 229 in 2020, peaked at 334 in 2022 and were 300 last year.
- Case example: Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist who reported from Wuhan, was recently sentenced to another four years.
- Regional drivers: countries identified as leading contributors to the trend include China, Myanmar (51 journalists currently detained after the 2021 coup), Afghanistan and Vietnam; the article also notes U.S. funding cuts for independent regional media and the export of Chinese surveillance techniques.
📍 Contextual Background
- The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021.
- The Taliban banned the internet during their first period of rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
- After capturing Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban briefly imposed an internet blackout in the capital.
- Afghanistan's internet primarily operates on a national fiber-optic infrastructure owned and operated by Afghan Telecom.
- As of 2023, 18 percent of Afghanistan's population used the internet, and there were 56 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people (World Bank).
- During the insurgency following 2001, the Taliban regularly targeted cell towers and caused mobile internet providers such as MTN to leave Afghanistan.
- Mobile network operators in Afghanistan obtain their connectivity from Afghan Telecom or from internet service providers in neighboring countries.