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Tag - censorship

 
 

CENSORSHIP

Japan's heavy reliance on X makes it particularly vulnerable to foreign and domestic disinformation, requiring stronger fact-checking and platform transparency to protect democratic resilience.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 10, 2026
How disinformation on X imperils Âé¶¹´«Ã½ democracy
Âé¶¹´«Ã½ writing system allows a user to convey a complex thought within a single 140-character post, making the platform far more expressive and functional in Japanese.
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the media after signing an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 5, 2026
Trump vowed to ¡®bring free speech back.¡¯ Judges in 75 cases ruled he has stifled it.
U.S. President Donald Trump administration officials have repeatedly called federal judges ruling against them ¡°activists¡± interfering with the president¡¯s executive authority.
The entrance to the Have a Nice Stay bookstore on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 29, 2026
Hong Kong independent bookstores to close after police raid
Police searched the two bookshops this month and arrested five people on suspicion of displaying and selling ¡°items with seditious intent.¡±
An independent bookstore employee is being led away by policemen after the officers raided the "Have A Nice Stay" bookshop and confiscated items in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 16, 2026
Hong Kong police raid independent bookstore run by former journalists
Police said it searched two shops after being alerted to books with ¡°seditious intention¡± found in a shipment from overseas.
The NATO leaders' summit is due to begin in Ankara today.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2026
Turkey cracks down on press as NATO leaders gather in Ankara
As Turkey rises as a strategic defense partner, criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his heavy-handed methods is unlikely to be widely expressed.
Turkish police officers walk in front of protestors during an anti-NATO demonstration in Istanbul on Sunday, ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2026
Journalists arrested in Turkey as NATO summit looms
Human rights groups have complained of a shrinking space for dissent in Turkey in recent weeks.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Yoweri Museveni and Uganda's Chief of Defense Forces, inspects a military parade from a vehicle during the inauguration ceremony of his father following his reelection as president at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala on May 12.
WORLD
Jun 29, 2026
Ugandan army chief shuts down main independent media group
Nation Media Group¡¯s television station NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor newspaper will remain closed until further notice, Uganda¡¯s army chief said in a series of posts on X.
A 33-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man have been detained by Hong Kong police for allegedly selling items "with seditious intent."
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 25, 2026
Hong Kong arrests two for allegedly selling ¡®seditious¡¯ material
Local outlets reported one of the items being sold was a biography of jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai.
A man checks his mobile phone in central Moscow on March 17. Since the Kremlin ratcheted up control over the internet this year, Russians have been turning to increasingly convoluted technical solutions to circumvent state monitoring and restrictions on popular foreign apps.
WORLD
Jun 16, 2026
Russians juggle phones and VPNs to skirt Putin¡¯s digital iron curtain
The biggest crackdown of its kind has at times disrupted banking, transport and e-commerce, irritating people ahead of a September parliamentary election.
People read the headlines of Ivorian newspapers at the side of a street in Ajame, a popular district of Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jun 10, 2026
Self-censorship, insecurity, financial squeeze: Press under pressure in Cote d¡¯Ivoire
Press freedom is more established in Cote d¡¯Ivoire than in other west African nations but remains precarious in a region hit by conflict and under political and economic pressure.
Sohei Kamiya, leader of the Sanseito party, delivers a speech during a campaign event in Tokyo in late January ahead of the February snap election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 7, 2026
How students almost got protesting Sohei Kamiya right
I have a more than trivial disagreement with the students¡¯ tactics and with how they comprehend freedom of inquiry.
The Epstein files on public display at the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room in New York City on May 8
WORLD / Politics
May 12, 2026
Epstein files on display at New York pop-up exhibit, all 3.5 million pages
The pop-up also has a display on the longstanding relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on Sunday.
WORLD
May 3, 2026
Pope marks World Press Freedom Day, laments violations and honors slain reporters
The pope ?urged the faithful to ?remember journalists and reporters who have lost their lives pursuing the truth, particularly ?in areas afflicted ?by conflicts.
Sebastien Lai, son of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, poses for a portrait next to a poster featuring his father during an interview in London in December.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2026
Memo to Xi: There is no downside to freeing Jimmy Lai
Lai started his media business following the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in which Chinese authorities killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of their own citizens.
The Manus decision comes just weeks before China¡¯s Xi Jinping and the U.S. president are scheduled to meet at a high-profile summit.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 28, 2026
Xi tests China¡¯s reach by blocking already-done Meta deal
The country¡¯s powerful state planner decreed Monday that the deal must be canceled ¡ª four months after it was sealed.
Copies of The Wall Street Journal for sale in in New York on April 9. On Monday, a federal judge dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal over its report of a birthday card sent to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 14, 2026
U.S. judge throws out Trump¡¯s defamation case against Wall Street Journal
U.S. District Court Judge Darrin P. Gayles said Trump had not ?come close to meeting the ¡°actual malice¡± standard that public figures must clear in defamation.
The United States has serious domestic flaws, but its freedoms, alliances and global influence distinguish it from authoritarian states, a distinction its allies must recognize and actively invest in through engagement.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 3, 2026
The Moon and the Turtle: A lesson in false equivalence
Following the United States does not mean following blindly; it means understanding that the CRINKs offer no alternative order worth living in.
Gao Zhen, left, and his brother Gao Qiang, with their artwork ¡°Mao¡¯s Guilt¡± in Beijing in September 2009
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 31, 2026
The secret trial of a Chinese artist accused of mocking Mao Zedong
The trial, where the artist faces suspicion of slandering China¡¯s heroes, will not be open to the public.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has approved a policy which has been criticized as giving the Pentagon free rein to freeze out reporters and news outlets over coverage the department does not like.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2026
Pentagon adopts new press restrictions after court order against previous limits
Press ?freedom advocates have criticized policy changes under U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s administration that have limited journalists¡¯ access to the Pentagon.
The Indian Supreme Court building in New Delhi in 2010
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 23, 2026
Activists and journalists set for court fight over Modi¡¯s privacy law
Concerns have been raised over a possible chilling effect on newsgathering and the hindering of accountability journalism.

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Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Âé¶¹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness

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