Myanmar: Side-lining local aid agencies represents continued colonisation of humanitarian practices
Myanmar’s people have clearly and universally rejected the coup and the military junta. Will international governments, donors and aid agencies do the same? Six months after the February 1 coup, my country is locked in a humanitarian and Covid-19 crises. The military junta has terrorised Myanmar, committing war crimes and...
How resistance to caste system drove over 60 upper-caste students in India to suicide
In the late 1990s, when Raosaheb Kale became a professor at for Jawaharlal Nehru University, or JNU, he sat on a committee to select junior researchers at the Nuclear Science Centre, about a mile away from the university in New Delhi. Among the candidates was a Dalit researcher named Rajendra...
India’s casteism: If I make a mistake, it’s not my mistake; it’s labelled the mistake of ‘Untouchables’ community
Raosaheb Kale was born in 1950, three years after India became free from British rule, and the same year India’s constitution came into force. That constitution abolished untouchability and declared caste discrimination illegal. The constitution also introduced reservation policies in public sector jobs, politics and education for marginalised communities, including...
Rohingya refugees dread ‘government of the night’ run by rival criminal gangs
Before she fled Myanmar as a refugee, Rozina had worked for an NGO for seven years. Now, fear has gradually taken hold of her every evening, when the sun sets and the last aid worker jeep has rumbled out of the vast refugee camps. The refugees’ security, especially, is considered...
Rohingya crisis: Outspoken women are abused, intimidated for being educated
A climate of fear has spread across Bangladesh’s sprawling Rohingya camps as militant groups and criminal gangs compete for control, refugees and humanitarians warn. Community leaders and female Rohingya in particular are threatened and intimidated for being educated or outspoken about women’s rights, stretching conservative norms to a level of...
Bangladeshi police arrest landgrabbers who assaulted journalist investigating the theft
Police have arrested three people in connection with an attack on Bahannor Alo correspondent Selim Shamrat, who was attacked while investigating an illegal land seizure on July 11. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the attack on the journalist and called on police to ensure the investigation is followed...
Pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper closed down by Hong Kong strongmen
The Hong Kong edition of Apple Daily, published by the Hong Kong-based Next Digital media group, will print its last paper on June 24. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), expressed deep concern over the dark day for journalism and independent...
Apple Daily executives arrested in massive Hong Kong police raid on pro-democracy figures
Hong Kong police raided the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and arrested five senior executives on June 17. All were charged under the controversial national security law and accused of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the charges calls for their immediate...
Press freedom: Killing a journalist is the world’s ‘safest crime’
A new report on the murder of Pakistani journalist Zubair Mujahid finds significant errors in the official police investigation. Leading press freedom organisations now call for an independent re-investigation of the case to bring the killers to justice. The report “Breaking the Silence: An Investigation into the Murder of Zubair...
Myanmar court releases one of two detained American journalists
A Myanmar court has dismissed a criminal case against US journalist Nathan Maung and freed from detention, where he has been since March. The release comes on the back International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemnation of use of the Penal Code to detain journalists and urged the military junta to...
