Uwazi

Regarding today’s forced summons of human rights defenders Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar, FORUM-ASIA Executive Director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu said:

The harassment of Fatia and Haris earlier today reflects the Indonesian government’s continuous use of reprisals against human rights defenders. Approximately 8:00 am, five police officers arrived at Fatia’s residence, and another four arrived at Haris’ house to pick them up for interrogation. This stems from charges filed last year by the Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan against the two over comments regarding a report alleging the involvement of army officials with the operations of the gold mining sector in Papua.

The unexpected police presence at their respective homes is clearly an intimidation against these defenders, and sends out a message that defenders will be targeted for exposing corruption or rights violations.

We call on the police to immediately end the criminalisation of these two defenders. The Government of Indonesia must instead ensure protection of human rights defenders who hold state actors accountable, and halt any misuse of litigation by authorities, businesses, and other sectors.

Indonesia as a democracy must be committed towards the implementation of laws and policies that protect freedom of expression, and it must respect the rights of its people to share critical or dissenting views to hold the government accountable.

About Fatia and Haris Fatia Maulidiyanti is the Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS). Haris Azhar is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Lokataru Foundation.

Kashmiri journalist Sajad Gul has been booked under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) and had been shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, Inspector-General of Police Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar confirmed to The Kashmir Walla on Sunday, 16 January.

The PSA is a preventive detention law under which a person is taken into custody to prevent them from acting harmfully against "the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order" in Jammu and Kashmir. Under the PSA, a person can be detained for a period of 3 to 6 months without trial.

The arrest under the PSA comes a day after the journalist was granted bail by a local court in a criminal conspiracy case. The Case Against Gul

Gul, a trainee reporter at the The Kashmir Walla, had been arrested on 6 January. He has been booked under criminal conspiracy and other charges for posting a video of a family shouting anti-India slogans after their kin was killed in a gunfight in Srinagar.

In the video, the family members could be seen protesting against the killing of alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Salim Parray, who was gunned down 3 January.

A police statement in this regard had said, “The said person (Sajad Gul) under the garb of a journalist is habitual of spreading disinformation, false narratives through different social media platforms in order to create ill will against the government by provoking general masses to resort to violence and disturb public peace and tranquillity… his overall activities are prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and unity of India.”

On Saturday, the journalist was granted conditional bail by a local Bandipora court. The police was directed to release Gul against a bond of 30,000 rupees if he was not involved in any other crime, The Kashmir Walla reported.

Gul, however, was not released as his he had been named in another case registered earlier this month, under sections Indian Penal Code 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 ( every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 307 (attempt to murder) Indian Penal Code. ADVERTISEMENT 'Journalist Is Not a Crime': Scribes Condemn Case Against Gul

A number of journalists took to Twitter to condemn the case against Gul.

"Police's decision to open a fresh investigation into Sajad Gul even as he was granted bail on previous allegations is a transparent effort to hold him, no matter what the court decides. Authorities must drop the investigation and set him free," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Asia said in a tweet.

Two months after the arrest of activist Khurram Parvez and ten days after the arrest of journalist Sajad Gul, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have now arrested human rights activist Ahsan Untoo.

Untoo – the chairman of the International Forum for Justice and Human Rights Jammu and Kashmir – was arrested on Friday, 14 January, for allegedly spreading a secessionist agenda and inciting disaffection against India.

The J&K Police issued a statement to the media on Friday regarding his arrest, claiming he has been part of secessionist discussions on Twitter Spaces (audio discussion rooms):

“It was reliably learnt that Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, resident of Diver (Lolab) Kupwara, a proactive secessionist, is an active participant and speaker at Twitter spaces titled 'Radio Resistance Kashmir' led by two known secessionists namely Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur and Dr Asif Dar. These known secessionists, who are accused in several cases along with Ahsan Untoo, are actively spreading hatred against the Union of India on the social media platform.”

A police spokesperson claimed that Untoo's actions threaten the peaceful atmosphere of the Union Territory and spread "disaffection, ill-will and disharmony" against the Union of India. The police claims that he is inciting youth to resort to violence and indulge in unlawful activities.

They have not yet publicly announced the charges against Untoo, only saying that these activities amount to cognisable offences.

Sajad Gul, a young journalist with The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on 5 January, for posting a video of the protests following the killing of militant Saleem Parray, which included slogans by the militant's family calling for 'Azadi'.

Well-known rights activist Khurram Parvez, the coordinator of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was arrested by the NIA on 22 November 2021 on terror charges under the UAPA.

Police in Vietnam have arrested land rights activist Le Manh Ha on charges of spreading anti-state materials on social media, his wife told RFA Thursday.

Ha’s arrest Wednesday already marks the sixth time since the start of this year that authorities have detained people for human rights advocacy.

He had been operating a YouTube account called “People’s Voice Television” and a Facebook account called “Voice of the Vietnamese People,” where he shared his criticisms of the government.

Years ago, the government took his community’s land in Na Hang district in the northern province of Tuyen Quang to build a power plant. He has said that the government has not yet paid him and his former neighbors proper compensation. Since then, Ha has studied Vietnamese law and has helped others with legal advice and petitioning the government.

Police in plainclothes arrested Ha Wednesday in Tuyen Quang’s Chiem Hoa district. They took him to his current home in Tuyen Quang city and searched his house. His family told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the authorities have not yet provided them with any documentation related to the arrest.

“At about 8:30 a.m. yesterday when I was getting my mother to the hospital, a local resident informed me that the police arrested Ha in Chiem Hoa,” Ha’s wife, Ma Thi Tho said.

“I decided to return home and got back around 9 a.m. and there were many police officers, around 20 or 30 of them, surrounding my home,” she said.

She said the police brought Le Manh Ha to the home at about 10:30 that morning.

“Shortly after his arrival, they read out a house search warrant and an order to prosecute my husband,” she said.

Among the items taken from Ha’s house were books on Vietnamese laws and its constitution.

Tho said police officers told her that her husband was in violation of Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, which prohibits spreading propaganda against the state. Article 117 has been described by analysts as a vague set of rules frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist government.

“The real reason is because he has been fighting for the people,” Tho said.

Le Dinh Viet, Ha’s defense lawyer, said his client has been fighting to correct the injustice of not being compensated for his land during the construction of the hydropower plant.

“He did not break any laws,” Viet said.

The Tuyen Quang hydropower plant began operations in 2008, but the government has not yet finished compensating affected families. Authorities promised to provide 16 square meters of land in Tuyen Quang city for each family, but in 16 years, only half of them have received their plot of land.

While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint between citizens and their government. Some small landholders have accused authorities of pushing them aside in favor of lucrative real estate or infrastructure projects, and then paying too little in compensation.

“The Vietnamese government is using criminal law to intimidate and shut down people peacefully protesting against land confiscation,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in December 2021 about the arrests of other land rights activists in the country.

“The government should release [everyone] arrested and imprisoned under Article 117, and abolish this abusive law,” he said.

Among the remaining five arrestees this year were Le Thanh Nhat Nguyen, Le Thanh Hoan Nguyen, and Le Thanh Trung Duong, monks at the Peng Lai Temple in the southern province of Long An.

The three monks, along with their previously arrested leader Le Tung Van, were charged with article 331 for “abusing rights to freedom and democrary to violate the State’s interests, legitimate interest of organizations and individuals.”

State media did not reveal their crime, but article 331 is often used in cases involving activists advocating for human rights and religious freedom.

The other two arrestees were Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang from the southern province of Dong Nai. Hung was in the middle of a livestream when police stormed in and arrested the couple.

The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) protests the arbitrary conviction of civil society activist Mai Phan Lợi to four years in prison by the Hanoi People’s Court at a one-day trial on 11 January 2022. Lợi was accused of “tax evasion” along with a colleague, Bạch Hùng Dương, who received a 30-month sentence. VCHR deplores the frequent use of tax-related charges as a pretext to detain and silence bloggers, human rights defenders civil society activists and other government critics in Vietnam.

“Mai Phan Lợi’s real “crime” is that of advocating greater independence for civil society in Vietnam” said VCHR President Võ Văn Ái. “As part of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Hanoi pledged to establish a Domestic Advisory Group composed of independent CSOs to monitor the trade agreement and make recommendations on issues of land rights, worker rights and the environment. Mai Phan Lợi is sent to prison simply for urging Vietnam to uphold its binding obligations to the EU and the Vietnamese people”.

Mai Phan Lợi, 51, is founder and chair of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Media in Educating Community (MEC), a government-registered non-profit organisation established in 2012. He is also a journalist, former Hanoi Bureau chief of the law magazine Pháp Luật. He was arrested on 24 June 2021 along with another prominent civil society activist, lawyer Đặng Đình Bách, director of the Law and Policy for Sustainable Development (LPSD). Both men were accused of “tax evasion” under Article 200 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. No information has been made public so far on the situation of Đặng Đình Bách.

Lợi and Bách were both Executive Board members of VNGO-EVFTA Network, a group of development and environmental CSOs established in 2020 to raise awareness about EVFTA and its civil society component in Vietnam, the Vietnam Domestic Advisory Group (DAG). Lợi’s role was to organize chat-shows and workshops on MEC’s communications channel GTV to highlight the role of civil society in monitoring the implementation of EVFTA in Vietnam.

The Court ruled that Mai Phan Lợi had “ordered his subordinates not to keep accounting records” and “not to declare and pay tax”. According to reports of the trial in the State-controlled press, Lợi and his accomplice had evaded taxes of almost 2 billion dongs (77,500 Euros) from subventions and donations worth over 19 billion dongs received by his organisation over the past 10 years.

The arrests of these civil society activists and the lack of independence of the Vietnamese DAG has been strongly denounced by its EU counterpart, the EU DAG, most recently in a statement issued at the first meeting of the Vietnam-EU Joint Civil Society Dialogue Forum in November 2021: ”The EU DAG has consistently raised the cases of several civil society representatives in Vietnam arrested and imprisoned in recent months directly with both parties to the EVFTA. We are concerned by the limited number of participants in the Vietnamese DAG and therefore ask that a defined process for further civil society engagement and participation be clarified. This is all the more urgent as we understand that a number of civil society organisations have had their applications for participation [in the DAG] rejected on unclear grounds”.

Stressing that EVFTA “explicitly calls for DAGs to be composed of “independent representative organisations” (Article 13.14.15 of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter), the EU DAG recalled that the civil society component was “the bedrock on which it can be ensured that the commitments undertaken are implemented in practice by both Parties”.

To obtain ratification of EVFTA, Vietnam adhered to all these provisions, but has failed to live up to its promises. Whereas the EU DAG, which was established in 2020 and consists of over 20 members including human rights NGOs, worker and employers organisations, business groups and environmental organisations, the Vietnamese DAG was not established until August 2021 – one year after EVFTA came into force. It has only three members, the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Institute for Workers and Trade Unions (an affiliate of the State-sponsored Vietnam General Confederation of Labour), and the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). The criteria of independence specified for DAGs under EVFTA are clearly not applied in Vietnam.

VCHR calls on Vietnam to immediately release Mai Phan Lợi, Đặng Đình Bách, Bạch Hùng Dương and all other civil society activists detained for the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression, association, assembly and freedom of religion or belief.

The famous Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang is missing after he was taken away by security forces last Tuesday, according to his wife, the university professor of Chemistry Chen Guiqiu, on social networks.

In the last known case, the lawyer had been defending a pregnant teacher, Li Tiantian, in a rural area of ​​Hunan province (southern China), forcibly transferred to a psychiatric center, according to the Red of Human Rights Lawyers (Weiquanwang) on his blog. A few days later, he himself was arrested.

“Xie Yang was detained by state security on January 11 and his whereabouts are unknown. His phone is operational but calls are transferred to voicemail all the time,” Chen said on his Twitter account. “Local state security offices have warned Xie’s family not to talk to the media.”

The 49-year-old lawyer from Changsha, the capital of Hunan, is known for his defense of dissidents and other defendants in politically sensitive cases. Among others, he has represented people involved in the New Citizen civil movement, which in the first decade of the century tried to promote transparency in Chinese government. One of his favorite phrases is “don’t let silence become a habit”.

In July 2015, he was one of those arrested in a major raid on some 200 human rights lawyers across China, which would be dubbed “709″ after the date it began.

During his detention, first six months incommunicado in a secret location and then a year and a half in a detention center, he reported to his lawyers that he had been subjected to torture, which he described in detail. In 2017, he was tried for crimes of disorderly conduct and subversion against the state, two charges that are frequently used in China against dissidents. At trial he pleaded guilty and retracted his allegations of torture. But the court did not impose any sentence on him, allowing him to keep his license to practice when he returned home. Something that the vast majority of those arrested in the 709 raid, subjected to the scrutiny of the authorities even today, have never managed to recover.

It was later learned that he was forced to withdraw those complaints as a condition for his release.

In 2020, his license to practice was finally withdrawn, amid a climate of tightening control of civil society and surveillance of dissidents. The Hunan provincial government’s Justice Department said at the time that his permit had been revoked for multiple episodes of “contempt of court” – his attempts to defend his clients – and for comments on social media that were deemed either defamatory or misleading. endangered national security.

“My husband works for the needy day and night and I support him in his noble works. But as a wife, I am in constant fear. I fear that the Chhattisgarh Police is trying to kill my husband," said Priya Jaiswal, the wife of Jitendra Jaiswal, a journalist currently in Raipur central jail.

"I wasn’t informed about his arrest and when I got the news from mediapersons and somehow managed to contact the SP (superintendent of police) of Raipur, I was told that Jitendra’s brother has been communicated about his arrest,” Priya further stated.

Chhattisgarh Police arrested Jitendra Jaiswal under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 151, 107, and 116 as conveyed by them in the notice of arrest sent to Priya Jaiswal. "Jitendra Jaiswal has been arrested on 10 January and will be produced in Raipur court on 10 January," the notice read.

Raipur Police, in a statement to the media, said, "PS Tikrapara, Distt Raipur has intimated Kumar Jitendra Jaiswal family (his brother who is in police deptt in Balrampur). He has been arrested under preventive sections in relation to police family related protest. He and 3 others were produced before magistrate after which they have been admitted to Raipur Central Jail."

In October 2020, another scribe and strong voice for tribal rights in Chhattisgarh, Kamal Shukla, was assaulted outside the police station in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. Ironically, he was covering a story of another scribe being beaten at the time.

Jitendra’s wife said that she wasn’t informed by the police about the arrest of her husband initially and got the news from the media. Jitendra lives with his wife and two children, aged eight and six years respectively, in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur district and is the editor of Bharat Samman.

Akeel Ahmad, an activist and a professor, and a close aide of Jitendra, told The Quint that this is being done under the pressure of the government.

“Jitendra has been very vocal about a lot of issues that point out the lacunae in governance. One such incident was the custodial death of one tribal person in Ambikapur. Jitendra covered it extensively. From then on, he caught the eyes of the officials. Some of them also threatened him,” Ahmad said.

“Recently he was covering the protest by the families of police personal in Chhattisgarh and on 9 January he had done a news piece showing their problems and exposed a big corruption. After that he was picked up and is being kept in jail, even though the sections under which he has been booked are bailable,” he further claimed.

Journalist Kamal Shukla said that the government and chief minister himself had promised to bring a law to protect journalists but till date there hasn't been any progress on that front. He further opined that the state is witnessing assaults on the journalists and voices trying to expose the faults in the governance and this is not right.

Nilesh Mahobia, lawyer of Jitendra Jaiswal, told The Quint: "Jitendra Jaiswal is in Raipur central jail at present under the IPC section 151. I went to meet and talked to him. He was presented in the court on the night of 10 January and was sent to jail from there. He was presented in the SDM (Sub-Divisional Magistrate) court on 11 January. The court has sought investigation report and further process will follow post this report is filed.”

Journalists in Chhattisgarh have been fighting for a law to protect scribes in the state, however, the bill is in the draft stage and hasn't been tabled in the Assembly.

A prominent Afghan university professor who openly criticised the Taliban's hardline regime has been arrested in Kabul, a spokesman for the government said.

Professor Faizullah Jalal has made several appearances on television talk shows since the previous US-backed government was ousted in August, blaming the Taliban for the worsening financial crisis and criticising them for ruling by force.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have cracked down on dissent, forcefully dispersing women's rights protests and briefly detaining several Afghan journalists.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that Jalal had been detained Saturday over statements he made on social media in which he was "trying to instigate people against the system and was playing with the dignity of the people".

"He has been arrested so that others don't make similar senseless comments in the name of being a professor or scholar that harm the dignity of others," he added.

Mujahid shared screenshots of tweets he claimed had been posted by Jalal, which said the Taliban intelligence chief was a stooge of Pakistan, and that the new government considers Afghans as "donkeys".

In one television appearance, Jalal called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem -- who was also participating -- a "calf", a grave insult in Afghanistan.

Clips of his passionate criticism went viral on social media, sparking concern he risked Taliban retribution.

Jalal's wife Massouda, who once stood as Afghanistan's first woman candidate for the presidency, posted on Facebook that her husband had been arrested by Taliban forces and detained in an unknown location.

"Dr. Jalal has fought and spoken out for justice and the national interest in all his activities pertaining to human rights," she said.

A long-time professor of law and political science at Kabul University, Jalal has long had a reputation as a critic of Afghanistan's leaders.

On Twitter, rights group Amnesty International condemned the arrest of the lecturer "for exercising his freedom of expression and criticising the Taliban", calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

The Taliban have formed an all-male cabinet made up entirely of members of the group, and almost exclusively of ethnic Pashtuns.

They have further restricted women's rights to work and study, triggering widespread international condemnation.

The Central Bureau of Investigation’s registration of a case against human rights organisation People’s Watch under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act highlights the worsening situation of shrinking civic space in India, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) said.

On 8 January, a team of nearly ten officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted search operations in the office of People’s Watch, a member organisation of FORUM-ASIA, in Madurai, India. The search was conducted based on a court order related to a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the CBI on 6 January alleging violations by People’s Watch in receiving and utilising foreign funds. The FIR is filed under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 33, 35, 39 r/w sections 7, 8, 9 of the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act (FCRA) for alleged offences committed between 2010 and 2014.

People’s Watch has been working on the protection and promotion of human rights in India for more than two decades, as a programme unit under its legal holder, the Center for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC). CPSC is duly registered under the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act to receive foreign funds. In 2012, the Ministry of Home Affairs suspended CPSC’s FCRA registration thrice for a period of 180 days each time. Only after the intervention of the Delhi High Court in a writ petition by CPSC challenging the suspension of their FCRA registration, did the court allow CPSC to use their FCRA account.

Meanwhile in 2016, CPSC applied to the Ministry of Home Affairs to renew their registration under the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act, and was rejected due to a ‘field agency report’ by the Ministry. Failing to cite any financial irregularities, the Ministry stated in a written response before the Delhi High Court that the reason for non-renewal was due to People’s Watch Executive Director Henri Tiphagne’s communications with embassies as well as UN Special Rapporteurs. CPSC has challenged the non-renewal of their registration before the Delhi High Court and the case is still pending.

‘People’s Watch is clearly facing reprisals in the form of non-renewal of their FCRA registration. Working with UN human rights mechanism is not a crime. The continuous harassment against People’s Watch is highly condemnable and deeply concerning. It is surprising that after nearly ten years, the CBI has registered a case against CPSC and People’s Watch. This is a clear case of targeted harassment and reprisal against the human rights work of People’s Watch,’ said Shamini Darshini Kaliemuthu, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA.

The Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act is used arbitrarily to harass and impede the work of civil society organisations, especially those working on human rights issues. The FCRA registration of nearly 6,000 organisations[1] on 31 December 2021. Many applications for renewal, including that of Oxfam India, were rejected by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Recent amendments to the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act which prohibit sub-granting of foreign funds has affected countless grassroot organisations at rural level.[2] The amendment also enables authorities to freeze the funds of any organisation based merely on ‘preliminary inquiry’. Previously, an organisation had to be proven guilty of contravening the provisions of FCRA for the government to be able to freeze its funds. The new provisions are arbitrary and unjust as they can be easily used to target and harass civil society organisations and human rights defenders, who very often express criticism and dissent towards the government.

The Indian government should uphold its voluntary pledge[3] made during the UN Security Council elections by continuing to ‘foster the genuine participation and effective involvement of civil society in the promotion and protection of human rights’.

‘FORUM-ASIA reiterates its earlier call for a repeal of the FCRA[4] and urges the Government of India to ensure an enabling environment for civil society to freely promote and protect human rights. It must cease its harassment of civil society organsiations and human rights defenders through repressive laws,’ said Shamini.

‘We also call upon the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRCI) to intervene in this case of harassment against a civil society organisation, and to ensure protection in accordance with the Regional Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders[5] of the Asia Pacific Forum. We strongly encourage the NHRCI to revisit the appeal[6] submitted by human rights defenders from 24 countries gathered in Colombo for the 7th Asian Regional Human Rights Defenders Forum, 2016, regarding non-renewal of CPSC’s FCRA registration,’ said Shamini.

The Indian government must put an end to the targeted harassment and reprisal against People’s Watch, and unconditionally drop all charges against them.

Community rights activist Khairiyah Rahmanyah, 18, said she received a summons from the Pathumwan Police Station for violating the Emergency Decree and the Sound Amplifier Act.

Khairiyah, a 1st-year student at the Prince of Songkhla University’s Faculty of Communication Sciences, said that she has to report to Pathumwan Police Station on Friday, 7 January 2022. She was uncertain of why she was being harassed, said that she just wants to study like other people, and asked why it was no longer possible for people in the country to voice their opinions.

On 29 November 2021, Khairiyah came to Bangkok to follow up on an as-of-yet unfulfilled promise the government made in 2019 to reconsider a 16,700-rai Chana industrial estate project and conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). She sat in front of Government House every evening for a week to remind the administration of its pledge, but received no response from the authorities.

On 6 December 2021, a group of Chana community members came to Bangkok to occupy the area in front of Government House to demand that the government keep its promises. They were arrested that evening at their camp and charged with violation of the Emergency Decree. Held overnight at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, they were released on 7 December without bail on the condition that they not return to Government House.

After their release, the protesters occupied the foothpath in fron of the UN headquarters on Ratchadamneon Avenue for five days before marching to Government House and occupying the nearby Chamai Maruchet bridge.

On Tuesday, 14 December, the cabinet finally issued a resolution to conduct an SEA, temporarily halting the Chana industrial zone project. The National Economic and Social Development Council was tasked with leading the SEA process. The results will be evaluated by Thaksin and Prince of Songkla Universities. The next morning, the protesters left for Songkhla.

When they were occupying the footpath in front of the UN headquarters, Khairiyah and several other young protesters from Chana participated in an event organised by the People Go Network. On 10 December 2021, she spoke on stage and participated in discussion circles about community rights issues at the courtyard in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC).

The Faculty of Political Science Student Union at the Prince of Songkhla University Pattani campus issued a statement last night (4 December) decrying the police action as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) and an attempt to silence people exercising their constitutional right to demand justice for their community.

The Student Union also asked the university administration to stand by students who face harassment from state officials and support students fighting charges. They further asked that the authorities respect people’s rights and end unwarranted prosecutions.

Local news website editor Pu Tuidim became the third journalist to be killed in Myanmar in just over three weeks when he was abducted and murdered by government soldiers in the northwest of the country last weekend. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this barbaric murder of a reporter who tried to inform his fellow citizens about the fighting between armed rebels and the military junta.

Pu Tuidim’s body was found in Matupi township, in Chin State, a mountainous region bordering on India, on the morning of 9 January, two days after he and nine other civilians were abducted by members of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, as he was covering the clashes between the Tatmadaw and local armed rebels. The soldiers shot him after using him as a human shield.

He was the founder and editor of the Khonumthung Media Group, a local news outlet named after Chin State’s highest mountain. Tragically, the website had just published an article about the Tatmadaw’s use of civilians as human shields.

On the evening of 9 January, Pu Tuidim's colleagues posted a statement condemning this practice and deploring their editor’s death “caused by the military council’s atrocities.” The message was circulated throughout the region under the hashtag of #အထူးဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲခြင်း, a Burmese expression meaning “Special Mourning.”

Escalating terror

“Cruelty, cynicism, barbarity – these words seem inadequate to describe Pu Tuidim’s shocking murder,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “He is the third journalist to be killed in Myanmar in less than a month, in a sign of the absolutely unacceptable practices increasingly employed by the junta. We appeal to the international community to toughen the sanctions imposed on the junta’s members in order to end this headlong escalation in terror.”

The most recent previous media fatality was Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung, who was killed by gunfire near the Thai border in the southeastern state of Kayin during a Tatmadaw artillery attack on 25 December. He was also covering fighting between the Tatmadaw and the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the armed resistance to the junta.

Freelance photographer Soe Naing was the first journalist to die at the junta’s hands. He died under torture on 14 December, four days after soldiers arrested him while he was covering a silent street protest in Yangon.

The number of journalists imprisoned in Myanmar has meanwhile risen to at least 59, according to RSF’s press freedom violations barometer, which is constantly updated.

They include two journalists who worked for the Zayar Times, a newspaper that was closed when the military staged their coup last February. The two journalists, deputy editor Pyae Phyo Aung and reporter Myint Myat Aung (also known as D. Myat Nyein), were each sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting crime” in a trial last week inside the prison where they are being held in the central city of Shwebo. The did not have access to a lawyer.

Myanmar is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Lawyers on Saturday boycotted legal proceedings at the City Courts in protest over a Rangers’ raid on the house of senior lawyer Qadir Khan and “abduction” of his son, who was later shown arrested by police but discharged by a court in a drugs case.

The lawyers did not turn up before judges to plead their cases fixed for the day. Subsequently, a large number of the cases were simply adjourned while the litigants faced a great deal of difficulties.

In a statement, Karachi Bar Association (KBA) general secretary Naeem Memon said the legal fraternity did not attend court proceedings over this incident.

Advocate Qadir Khan’s house was raided and his son, Asad Khan, was taken into custody by Rangers on Jan 6, he said.

Advocate Khan has been representing several members of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), including MNA Ali Wazir, in criminal cases being tried by antiterrorism courts in Karachi.

Later, the Brigade police produced the son of Advocate Khan before Judicial Magistrate Wazir Memon for his remand in a drugs case.

The investigating officer claimed that around 24 grams of heroin was recovered from his possession.

However, a number of the lawyers reached the court and opposed the IO’s request for remand, arguing that he was booked in a false case.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the magistrate discharged the suspect from the case under Section 63 (Discharge of person apprehended) of the criminal procedure code.

Dawn tried to contact a spokesperson for the Rangers for his version but in vain.

Taliban authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalists Faisal Modaris, Idris Rahimi, and Milad Azizi, and cease detaining members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On January 6, armed Taliban authorities detained the three journalists, all of whom work at the Kabul Lovers YouTube-based broadcaster, along with Azizi’s brother Rashid Azizi, while they were at a restaurant in the Shari Naw area of Kabul’s District Four, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation by the Taliban, as well as posts on Twitter by local journalists and activists.

Modaris works as a presenter for Kabul Lovers, Rahimi as a camera operator, and Milad Azizi owns the outlet, according to those sources. The broadcaster covers current affairs and daily life in Kabul and has continued since the Taliban takeover in August; it has about 240,000 followers on its YouTube channel.

Authorities later released Rashid Noori, but Modaris, Rahimi, and Azizi remain in custody according to those people who spoke to CPJ, adding that the journalists are being held by the counterterrorism body of the Directorate General of Intelligence, the Taliban’s intelligence agency, and have not been able to see their families or lawyers.

“The detention of Afghan journalists Faisal Modaris, Idris Rahimi, and Milad Azizi indicates a worrisome and reprehensible escalation of Taliban attacks on the independent media,” said CPJ Asia Coordinator Steven Butler. “Taliban authorities should unconditionally release the three journalists and stop imprisoning members of the press in retaliation for their work.”

The people who spoke to CPJ said that a Taliban member called Modaris’ family confirming that the three had been detained. The family member feared that the journalists could be tortured in detention, those people said.

The three recently covered protests by residents of Panjshir province after Taliban militias killed a civilian there, and featured protesters harshly criticizing the Taliban; the report was viewed more than 100,000 times, and it was cited by international news outlets including the BBC. The people who spoke to CPJ said they believed that reporting, because it contained criticism of the Taliban and was so widely shared, was likely the reason for the journalists’ arrests.

Ahmadullah Wasiq, a Taliban deputy spokesperson in Afghanistan, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ was unable to find contact information for the General Directorate of Intelligence.

Separately, on January 9, the Taliban released journalist Khalil Fitri after holding him in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif since December 13, according to news reports.

Police in Vietnam broke into a home and arrested a couple while the husband was livestreaming criticism of the government, their family told RFA.

Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang were arrested Jan. 5 at about 6 p.m. in their home in the southern province of Dong Nai while Hung was on YouTube.

Viewers of the livestream were able to witness the arrest as it occurred. About 20 minutes into the broadcast, Hung left his computer to investigate what sounded like glass breaking. Shortly after, a man in an orange “Electricity of Vietnam” uniform appeared in frame, shouting, “Stay still. Don’t move.”

At that point, the webcam was turned down to show only a corner of the table and what looks to be a script.

Provincial authorities charged Hoang with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests.” They have yet to make any official statement on Hung’s arrest.

The couple’s arrest was carried out by people in plain clothes, Hoang’s sister, Vu Giang Tien, told RFA.

“Two men suddenly broke into my sister’s house by climbing over the fence. Then they cut the gate lock open and rushed into the house,” she said.

“My sister’s oldest daughter got scared and started screaming. My mother, who lives next door, came over immediately and shouted, ‘Robbers! Robbers!’ when seeing the intruders in plain clothes, not in police uniforms,” Tien said.

When a man wearing yellow appeared with a gun, Tien said her mother stopped shouting out of fear.

“Those people took the two kids to a room upstairs to ask questions. Others who had already entered the house broke the glass door to open it. They searched the house, making a big mess, and they arrested Hung and Hoang and took them away,” Tien said.

The police did not announce why the couple were arrested or present any documents related to the arrest, the family said.

When the family asked why Hoang was also arrested, the police said they needed to take her away for investigation because she was involved in concealing a crime.

Two days later, the family went to the police station to find out more and were told by police that Hoang had been arrested for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” and that she was being held at a detention house elsewhere in the province.

The police did not provide them with any information about Hung, they said.

Tien said that Hung had been sharing his views on his YouTube channel for more than a year. The channel, established in January 2020, has around 40,000 followers. Videos are no longer available on the account.

Hung’s Facebook account is active, but the most recent post, which discussed the death of a young soldier, Tran Duc Do, is from July 2021.

Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2021. Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers and Facebook personalities in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January 2021.

Police have arrested at least 40 political dissidents since then, most of them charged with "disseminating anti-state materials,” according to RFA reports.

On January 5, authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Ha Tinh is the coastal province most affected by the waste dumping of Taiwan’s Formosa Steel plant in 2016 and Mr. Hung is among outspoken independent journalists about the environmental disaster. He was kidnapped by the local security forces when he was on his way to workplace.

Nguyen Duc Hung was accused of using social networks such as Facebook and Youtube to address the country’s issues such as land seizure, corruption, environmental pollution caused by industrial groups including Formosa, etc. He will be held incommunicado for at least four months, a common practice applied by Vietnam’s investigation agencies in so-called “national security” cases. Police have also conducted house searches and confiscated his laptops, cell phones and other personal items.

Bangladesh authorities must conduct a swift and impartial investigation into the abduction and beating of Hossain Baksh and take steps to protect the safety of journalists covering union council elections, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

At approximately 6:45 a.m. on January 5, Hossain Baksh, a camera operator for the privately owned news channel ATN News, was abducted and severely beaten, allegedly upon the order of Asad Ali, the then-ruling Awami League-nominated chairperson candidate for a local union council election, in the Madhabpur upazila, or sub-district, of the Kamalganj upazila in the northeastern Sylhet Division, according to the Dhaka Tribune and Baksh, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. (A union council is a local government unit in Bangladesh.) Ali did not respond to CPJ’s text message requesting comment.

Ali was subsequently elected chairperson of the Madhabpur upazila in the election held on January 5, according to Daily Jugantor. The next phase of local union council elections across the country will be held on January 31, and the final phase will be held on February 7, according to news reports.

“The abduction and beating of Hossain Baksh demonstrate the significant dangers that Bangladeshi journalists can face while covering elections,” said Steven Butler, CPJ Asia’s program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities must conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into the incident, hold the perpetrators accountable, and ensure that journalists can safely and freely report during the upcoming phases of the local union council elections.”

Baksh, who received a pass from the Election Commission to report on the polls, was filming an armed procession led by Ali that was allegedly threatening voters next to a primary school in Madhabpur, when the then-candidate ordered six or seven men to attack Baksh with machetes, sticks, and knives, abduct him, and take him to Ali’s house so “he would be scared of them in the future,” Baksh said, adding that men also stole his camera, smartphones, cash, credit cards, motorcycle key, and national identity card at that time, which they have yet to return.

Baksh told CPJ that the men forced him into a black car and took him to Ali’s house in the Madhabpur upazila. Once at Ali’s house, a group of men, including the then-candidate’s son and nephews, repeatedly and severely beat him with ropes and held him for approximately one and a half hours until around 8:00 a.m., when the Kamalganj police, which were informed by bystanders of Baksh’s abduction, retrieved him, according to Baksh.

Baksh sustained wounds to his head, face, eyes, and legs, and received first aid treatment at the Kamalganj Upazila Health Complex, where he vomited repeatedly and was referred to the Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital for further treatment, according to the Dhaka Tribune and Baksh, who said that he will require further medical treatment for injuries to his eyes.

Baksh told CPJ that he filed a complaint against the perpetrators at the Kamalganj police station today, but an investigating officer did not register a first information report, the first step of a police investigation, against the perpetrators, saying that further investigation would be necessary due to the association of the accused with the Awami League. Baksh added that the officer-in-charge of the station said that he would follow up with Baksh later.

The officer-in-charge of the Kamalganj police station did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

Mohammad Zakaria, superintendent of the Moulvibazar district police, which encompasses the Madhabpur and Kamalganj upazilas, responded to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app with a police document recording the incident, which said that Baksh is a supporter of the oppositional Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and was traveling to campaign for an independent candidate running in the Madhabpur union council election when Ali’s supporters stopped his car and slapped him before a police officer rescued him from the area and took him to the Kamalganj Upazila Health Complex for treatment.

Baksh and another local reporter with ATN News, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, denied the police’s claim, saying that Baksh was on assignment for ATN News at the time of the attack. The area of the assault identified in the police document is the same as where Ali’s house is located, according to a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

Munni Saha, news head of ATN News, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

Kazakhstan authorities must allow journalists to report freely on ongoing protests in the country and ensure their safety from officials and protesters, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Since January 4, authorities in the Central Asian nation detained at least eight journalists reporting on mass protests in several cities and blocked at least two news sites following their coverage of nationwide protests, according to multiple news reports. Journalists reported being shot at by unidentified individuals, chased by protesters, and struck by law enforcement officers while reporting on the events. (CPJ could not independently confirm local media reports because of a communication shutdown.)

The protests began in reaction to a sharp rise in the price of liquefied gas, but have since expanded into wider anti-government demonstrations. Internet across the country and telecommunications in the capital Nur-Sultan and the country’s largest city of Almaty were shut down around 5 p.m. Wednesday and authorities declared a state of emergency in Nur-Sultan, the Almaty region, and the western Mangystau region where the protests began. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Information warned media outlets that the emergency regulations authorized an increase in the maximum penalty for “knowingly spreading false information” to between three and seven years in prison.

“CPJ is extremely concerned by the developing situation in Kazakhstan as we receive reports of journalists’ arrest and acts of violence committed against them,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “We call on the Kazakh government to cease detaining members of the media, ensure the free flow of information, and take all possible measures to ensure the safety of journalists on the ground.”

Gulnara Bazhkenova, chief editor of independent news site Orda, wrote in a Telegram post that the site became inaccessible within Kazakhstan after the outlet reported on Tuesday that protesters were calling for the resignation of the government and the withdrawal of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev from public affairs.

Shortly afterward, independent news agency KazTAG wrote on Telegram that its website became inaccessible after the agency refused to comply with a written demand from the Ministry of Information and Social Development of Kazakhstan to remove an article that the ministry claimed contained “knowingly false information” about police use of force against protesters.

On January 4, Almaty police briefly detained Qasym Amanzhol, the acting head of Radio Azattyq’s Almaty bureau, the Kazakh service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, while he was filming protests in the city, according to a report by his employer. Despite Amanzhol showing them his press credentials, police held the journalist for two hours at the Medeu district police station before releasing him and apologizing, but without explaining the reason for his detention, according to the report.

In other arrests on January 4, police in the southern city of Taraz detained Aizhan Auelbekova, a correspondent with independent newspaper Vremya, Daniyar Alimkul, a correspondent with independent TV station 7 Kanal, and Nurbolat Zhanabekuly, a correspondent with independent TV station 31 Kanal, while they were covering local protests, according to news reports.

Officers released Alimkul and Zhanabekuly at the scene but held Auelbekova for more than three hours in a Zhambyl region police station before releasing her without giving a reason for her detention, according to these reports and the journalist’s Facebook page.

In Almaty, police detained Bek Baitas, an editor for Orda, while he was filming protests on Monday evening, despite him showing his press card, according to a Telegram post by Bazhkenova. Bazhkenova said that police took Baitas to Almaly district police station where they twisted his arms and broke his phone, Bazhkenova wrote.

In Nur-Sultan, plainclothes police in Nur-Sultan surrounded the apartment of Makhambet Abzhan, a reporter for independent news site Exclusive, who has been covering the protests on his Telegram blog Abzhan News and commenting on Russian television, turned off his electricity, and prevented him from leaving for the night, according to Telegram posts on Abzhan News.

Nur-Sultan police also arrested Radio Azattyq editor Darkhan Omirbek while he was reporting on Monday night’s protests, despite him presenting his press ID, according to a report by Radio Azattyq and a live stream broadcast by the journalist following his arrest. Police took Omirbek to Almaty district police station and questioned him for four and a half hours before releasing him, the report stated. The journalist told CPJ by messaging app that it is unclear if he is suspected of committing any offense.

On January 5, Bazhkenova reported that Orda journalist Leonid Rasskazov was hit in the back by a rubber bullet fired by police and Baitas was hit in the face by shrapnel from a police stun grenade while reporting in Almaty.

Also in Almaty, KazTAG reported that a protester ordered its camera crew to stop filming and then chased them with a paving stone. When the journalists reached their vehicle, protesters began to hit and rock the vehicle, the agency said.

Omirbek told CPJ that unidentified individuals in Almaty shot at Radio Azattyq’s reporter Ayan Qalmurat and camera operator Sanat Nurbek on January 5, adding that Radio Azattyq had decided to recall its reporters in the city due to the dangerous situation. In Nur-Sultan, riot police hit Radio Azattyq reporter Nurgul Tappayeva in the back, said Omirbek.

Around 11 a.m. on January 5, police in Uralsk detained independent journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov and questioned him at a local police station over alleged participation in an extremist organization, according to reports. He was released around 2 p.m., with a summons to attend further questioning later that day at 4 p.m., but CPJ was unable to confirm any further details.

At around the same time, also in Uralsk, police detained Serik Yesenov, a reporter with the independent news site Uralskaya Nedelya, while he was filming army vehicles in the city center, according to a report by his employer. Yesenov informed police that he was a journalist, but they grabbed his camera, deleted his footage and took him to Abay district police station, before releasing him after an unspecified amount of time, according to the report.

On Wednesday afternoon, protesters in Almaty stormed a building housing the editorial offices of several broadcasters–including local Kazakh television station KTK, reportedly owned by the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation; the local offices of Commonwealth of Independent States-funded broadcaster Mir 24; and Russian state-funded broadcaster Sputnik–and raided these outlets’ offices, damaging equipment, news reports stated. Orda reported that protesters detained journalists in the building for around an hour before leading them out of the building. Mir 24 and Sputnik have since confirmed that their employees left the building safely.

CPJ emailed the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Information and Social Development for comment but did not receive a response.

A Hong Kong barrister was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Tuesday for using social media to incite people to attend a banned vigil remembering the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Authorities last year, for the second time in a row, banned the city's annual June 4th memorial for the mainland Chinese student protesters who were killed in the violence. Police cited COVID-19 concerns, while critics argued it was part of a wider campaign to suppress memories of the event.

Chow Hang-tung, 36, who represented herself in court, was accused of incitement in connection with two articles published on Facebook and in a local newspaper, ahead of the 2021 commemoration.

In the newspaper article, the title of which said Hong Kong people "persevere in telling the truth," she concluded by writing, "At 8 p.m., I hope to see your candlelights," without specifying where.

In her defense, Chow had argued that the article called for candles to be lit anywhere -- not specifically at the vigil. She added that her detention restricted her freedom of speech.

But magistrate Amy Chan said in her judgment that Chow's acts were "calculated and planned, and that she was determined to attract as much public attention as possible, to exert influence and to leave a deep impression on other people."

Chow is already serving a 12-month sentence after she was found guilty last year with seven other activists, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, for similar charges of attending and inciting others to join the unauthorized vigil in 2020.

The magistrate said 10 months of the new jail sentence would be served following her current term, totaling 22 months of imprisonment. Chan said the defendant had attempted to "divert attention and deny the facts" in her testimony.

Before being convicted, Chow read out testimonies from families of victims killed 32 years ago. She was stopped short by the magistrate, who said the court did not allow expressions of political views.

"The court needs to hear the voices the regime wants to bury with this case," Chow had said before being interrupted.

Hong Kong officials have been waging an aggressive campaign to stifle the memory of Tiananmen since Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements, the group that led the vigils, disbanded last year after its leaders were arrested. Authorities froze 2.2 million Hong Kong dollars ($282,000) worth of assets following a raid of its June 4th exhibition. The group's leaders, including Chow, have also been charged with incitement to subvert the state under the sweeping security law.

Following the group's breakup, three Hong Kong universities removed memorials to the Tiananmen crackdown, including the iconic "Pillar of Shame" that had stood at the University of Hong Kong for 24 years. The disappearance of the statues, which universities said "posed legal and safety risks," sparked a barrage of global criticism.

Chow's sentencing also comes amid closures of independent news organizations in the international financial hub.

Citizen News, an online outlet, abruptly announced its decision to shut down on Monday and was to cease operations on Tuesday. This followed arrests of senior editors at another pro-democracy news organization, Stand News. Chris Yeung, chief writer of Citizen News, cited the worsening media environment and unknown "legal boundaries."

"We are completely unable to see clearly the lines of law enforcement and we are worried that we will breach the law," he told reporters.

Responding to the shutdown, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam dismissed concerns over the erosion of press freedom and said decisions to close are unrelated.

"I strongly refute any allegations that this is related to the implementation of the national security law," she told reporters at her weekly news conference.

2:55 p.m.

Striking casino workers resumed their protests outside Phnom Penh’s NagaWorld casino this afternoon following the arrests of 10 people on New Year’s Eve, as police were seen immediately arresting at least one more protester.

A fire truck arrived at the scene just after the arrest around 2:30 p.m., as protesters yelled they feared it would be used to spray them.

“It’s an injustice,” one woman was heard yelling near the casino. “Why are you helping a foreign company suppress workers?”

“Please release them,” she said as a police van drove past.

Around 300 workers are seeking reinstatement following layoffs of more than 1,300 NagaWorld workers last year, including union representatives.

They began protesting last month, and were joined by some current casino workers as crowds grew to around 1,000 on some days.

On New Year’s Eve, police cracked down on an evening protest, arresting eight people from the union’s office as well as a tuk-tuk driver and a worker outside NagaWorld 2.

Six were questioned in court over the weekend. Union president Chhim Sithar said on Monday that four of them had been released today but the six were still held at the court without knowing the charges they faced.

“We know from the beginning these tactics will be used to intimidate the members from stopping the strike,” she said.

Reporters saw no protests over the weekend.

More fire trucks were seen arriving at the scene around 2:40 p.m.

“We are coming to do nonviolent protests, but they come like they are going to war,” one worker said in a live video broadcast by protesters.

3:10 p.m.

Ma Chettra, an official at NGO the Cambodian Youth Network, said one of the arrested women, Luch Romduol, had called him saying there were 14 protesters together in a police van. She believed they were being taken to the municipal police station. One of the 14 was a man, and another was a pregnant woman, Chettra said Romduol had told him.

Near NagaWorld, around 300-400 workers continued their protest, while the park in front of the NagaWorld 1 building was cleared.

3:45 p.m.

A video from strikers shared on Facebook by Central’s Khun Tharo shows authorities grabbing women by their arms as they link arms to resist, with authorities dragging them outside the camera’s view. One woman can be heard shouting, “oh my god!” District guards appear to grab for phones, and the cameras shake uncontrollably.

In another video posted by a strike participant, an arrested woman films inside a police van, saying she is one of 14 people inside the back of a truck with pinhole-sized windows.

“We are the strikers, and now we have been arrested and placed in a cage,” a woman is heard saying in the video. “Help and share with all of the people. This is a grave injustice, what have we done wrong? Even a pregnant woman is arrested and pulled in and beaten.”

“Why, when we just come to protest? Why do the state and the forces arrest us? … This is very cruel. What have we done wrong? Now we do not know where they will take us.”

4:35 p.m.

One of several hundred protest participants said their colleagues had been arrested near the roundabout on the corner of Sisowath Quay and Sihanouk Blvd., known for the statue of dictionary author Chuon Nath, as they tried to join the fenced-off strike site next to the Australian Embassy on National Assembly Blvd.

Strike participants were seated behind red and white barricades set up by police, making noise with plastic horns and homemade shakers of empty plastic bottles and gravel. As a worker read the strike demands into a megaphone, they cheered and sounded the instruments.

Panha, a NagaWorld employee laid off after four years there, said he was not scared of anything, even knowing his colleagues were arrested.

“This is disappointing. I will keep coming until they arrest all of us,” he said.

One striking woman shouted to reporters that she would keep coming until the company offered a solution.

“If we do not come, we will die. The foreigners are working inside so easily, but we are not like them.”

“This makes us stronger. When we are scared, no one is coming [to help],” she continued.

Chan Pel, 43, said she had been working for NagaWorld for 22 years before she was laid off in May. She said she had joined the strike daily and would continue to do so.

“I’m not scared even if they arrested our friends. I’m hurting,” she said. “This encourages me to come here more and more. My heart is burning. I won’t stop coming until we get the solution.”

Riot police moved back at about 3 p.m., following the arrests of 14 union members.

4:53 p.m.

Naga union president Chhim Sithar said a total of 15 union members had been arrested on Monday afternoon according to strike participants, an update from earlier reports that 14 people were arrested. She told VOD earlier Monday afternoon that she planned to participate in the strike this week.

6:55 p.m.

Strikers departed around 6 p.m. chanting “we will come back tomorrow,” after 15 more protesters were arrested Monday afternoon and the Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor issued a warrant naming nine union members in an investigation.

The prosecutor named nine NagaWorld union members as suspects for incitement charges for their role in the 17-day strike against alleged labor rights violations by Hong Kong-listed casino group NagaCorp.

Six of the nine workers named by the prosecutor were arrested on New Year’s Eve and charged on Monday with incitement under articles 494 and 495 of the criminal procedure law, according to human rights group Licadho. A total of 10 people were picked up in the New Year’s Eve crackdown, but four were released on Monday morning, union president Chhim Sithar told VOD earlier Monday.

Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesperson San Sokseyha said Monday afternoon that he had yet to receive a report about the day’s arrests.

Municipal court spokesperson Y Rin said the case of six people arrested on Friday was in the hands of the investigating judge.

As strikers headed toward the Aeon Mall I parking lot, Police quickly removed red-and-white barricades without taking any action against the participants.

Patrick Lee, a legal adviser for labor group Central, told VOD that the authorities’ crackdown on the strike was a tactic to suppress the union members’ rights, and called for the detained strikers’ release.

“These arrests appear to be little more than a blatant attempt to dissuade peacefully striking workers from exercising their fundamental rights,” he said. “They have been arrested as a means to try and silence the voices of others. These workers should all be immediately released without charge.”

4:06 p.m.

After more than two weeks of protests and more than 20 arrests, the head of the NagaWorld union attempted to join an ongoing strike outside the Phnom Penh casino this afternoon despite an active arrest warrant against her.

Just before 4 p.m., however, Chhim Sithar was arrested by police officers on National Assembly Road, outside the Australian Embassy, as she entered barricades cordoning off the workers’ rally.

In addition to uniformed officers, undercover officers also pounced on her, and pulled her into a white sedan.

The strike and protest, which began last month, relate to the termination of more than 1,300 workers from the casino, including, in particular, top union leaders at NagaWorld.

Sithar, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union, was among those fired, and had been largely absent at rallies as authorities deemed the strike illegal. She was among nine names listed in an arrest warrant issued on Monday by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor. Ten people were arrested on Friday and a further 17 on Monday.

5:45 p.m.

The remaining two wanted NagaWorld workers have turned themselves in, police said, on the same day union president Chhim Sithar was violently arrested outside the Phnom Penh casino.

Seventeen workers arrested on Monday either have been or will be released by tomorrow at the latest, police said.

Near NagaWorld, worker Chhuon Saman started crying as she described her reaction to Sithar’s arrest.

“It’s been 16 days that I’ve been here. My representative came and they arrested her. I feel heartbreak. They are so cruel,” Saman said. “I wanted her to come here. … But she wasn’t here yet. They caught her. I can’t accept this.”

“Today this made my conscience more and more powerful to keep going,” Saman added.

Pov Kalyan, a woman who witnessed Sithar’s arrest from close, shouted furiously

“They arrested one Sithar, but we still have a thousand Sithars. Arrest us as they wish,” She said.

Kalyan said she was not one of the more than 1,300 fired workers. But she could not go back to work seeing the pressure NagaWorld was putting on her coworkers, she said.

“I cannot step into work like this when my friends receive injustice from the company,” she said. “I’m scared. I must be brave. If they want to arrest me, I’m standing here.”

Phnom Penh Municipal Police chief Sar Thet confirmed Sithar’s arrest and said all nine people in an arrest warrant issued by the municipal prosecutor were now found. Six of them had been arrested on Friday.

“Two men came to make a confession,” he said, referring to two workers, Sok Narith and Sok Kongkea. When asked about potential leniency for turning themselves in, he said: “This is the judge’s right and power.”

Asked about 17 people arrested on Monday — none of whom were on the arrest warrant — Thet said a pregnant woman was already released and the others should also be out soon.

“Sixteen people are being educated, and will be allowed home this evening or tomorrow at the latest,” he said. “They have nothing to do with it. They just follow others.”

Sithar’s arrest was reported enthusiastically on government-aligned Fresh News: “Finally! Ms. Chhim Sithar, Mastermind of Incitement of Illegal Gatherings in Front of NagaWorld, Has Been Arrested by Authorities.”

At the rally, authorities could be heard telling workers to leave by 6 p.m.

6:03 p.m.

Workers began leaving the rally together as a group near 6 p.m.

Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group Licadho, said the union had done everything it could to resolve the strike peacefully, but the government and NagaWorld had chosen to intimidate, harass, and arrest peaceful strikers.

“Chhim Sithar’s courage in showing up to today’s strike, knowing that she faced absurd and false charges of incitement, is a sharp contrast to the cowardly violence of those who arrested and assaulted her. This violent arrest of a peaceful unionist is outrageous, and shows the government has given up all pretense of respecting its own laws on labor rights,” she said.

Peaceful strikes were not crimes, unions were not illegal, and workers’ rights must be respected by both employers and the government, Pilorge added.

“The government has abused ‘incitement’ charges to the point that they are meaningless, and are now regularly used to criminalize legal and peaceful speech and association. These unionists are, in effect, being prosecuted for daring to organize a peaceful and effective union. They must all be immediately and unconditionally released.”

Protester Lou Mei Fong said earlier in the afternoon that she was not scared and would continue to rally.

“I do not have any concerns because I do it legally, and I will continue to do so until there is a solution for us,” Mei Fong said. “As long as NagaWorld comes out to solve the problem for us, we will return to work as normal.”

“We’re striking against the company, not against authorities.”

The protests began again on Tuesday around 2 p.m., attracting more than 100 workers.

The U.S. Embassy said on Twitter that it was closely following “the troubling arrests” of NagaWorld workers.

Kantapat (surname withheld), a 17 year old student activist, was summoned to the Nong Ki police station in Buriram Province on 3 January to sign a paper affirming that he would not interfere with an upcoming royal procession of Princess Sirindhorn on 5 January.

According to the Buriram Provincial Cultural Office, Princess Sirindhorn was planning to visit two Border Patrol Police Schools in the Lahansai and Pakham Districts on 5 January. En route, the royal procession was scheduled to pass through Nong Ki District.

Kantapat told Prachatai that he received a phone call from a police officer on 2 January asking him not to stage any activity on 5 January. The police also asked that he go to the police station to sign a daily record and allow police to confirm his whereabouts via telephone at least twice a day during 3-5 January period.

The activist said that he had no plan to organise an activity during that time and was instead preparing for a midterm exam that was scheduled for after the long new year’s holiday. Despite this, plainclothes police reportedly kept an eye on him at his home and school.

He could not explain why the police were ‘so anxious’.

Kantapat has been a target of the local police and school authorities since 2020, when he organised political activities in support of the pro-democracy movement and against the school’s uniform policy.

As a result of police monitoring prior to the 14 November monarchy reform protest in Bangkok, he was unable to join the demonstration.

In December 2020, his parents were also summoned to his school to hear complaints about his political activism and Facebook posts criticicing the school principal. In April 2021, the school forced him to sign a resignation letter stating that he had failed to meet school standards of behaviour by demonstrating his ‘love for the nation, religion and the monarch. The reason pertained to his pro-democracy activities.

He was told that if he repeated the offence, the resignation paper would become immediately effective.

Police monitoring of activists in advance of royal visits has been frequent since the 2014 coup. Activists in Northern Thailand have reported such monitoring on a number of occasions. The latest was on 20 December 2021 when Pakawadee Veerapaspong, a Chiang Mai activist and translator, was visited by plainclothes policemen before Princess Sirindhorn’s royal visit in Chiang Mai Province on 24 December. A full report was published by Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

Prior to the Kantapat incident, royal processions in Bangkok have been targeted by activists twice. On 28 December 2021, three activists held up banners with the message “abolish Section 112” at a procession of King Vajiralongkorn in Bangkok. They were arrested and fined.

Two days later, another two activists were arrested and charged with royal defamation after raising a banner at the Equestrian Monument Intersection close by one of the King’s palaces shortly before a royal procession passed the area. The banner demanded the release of detained protesters.

Arrests in both cases involved the use of force, resulting in cuts and, in one instance, a dislocated shoulder.

An app pretending to “auction” prominent Muslim women including journalists was posted online in India on 1 January. After talking to many Muslim women journalists, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Indian authorities to intervene to put a stop to this form of harassment, which is both revolting and potentially dangerous for its targets.

“It started on the 1st of January,” said Ismat Ara, a journalist who works for The Wire news website. “One of my friends sent me an image and I opened it thinking it’s a Happy New Year wish, but it wasn’t. It was quite shocking to see my picture there.” Underneath her photo were the words: “Your BulliBai of the day.”

“BulliBai” is the name of the app posing as a special kind of auction house that appeared on 1 January on GitHub, a software development platform popular in India, and has been widely downloaded since then. A term of unclear origin – it refers to a penis in southern India and a female servant in northern India – “Bulli Bai” is now an insult for Muslim women throughout the country, one widely used by online trolls who support the Hindu nationalist right.

Photos of around 100 women – stolen from their social media accounts – and personal information about them have been posted on the app as if they are being “auctioned off” or “made available” to the app’s users. The victims include many journalists like Ismat Ara.

Commodification

Ara told RSF that she has filed a complaint about the app. “In my complaint I have called it a conspiracy because it’s also a sort of coordinated attack against a type of Muslim women,” she said. “It’s very dehumanising – people are commodifying you, objectifying you.”

The outcry in India has been such that Microsoft, GitHub’s owner, has taken the app down and India’s Electronics & Information Technology minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said in a tweet on 2 January that the police were looking into it. The police in Mumbai announced this morning that an initial arrest had been made.

“The appearance of this kind of app, offering to place women journalists at the disposal of its users as if they were objects, is absolutely chilling,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “We urge the Indian authorities to do whatever is necessary to bring those responsible for such apps to justice. To do nothing would be to condone an extremely violent form of harassment, a form of intimidation that discriminates against an entire sector of the journalistic community and exposes those targeted to potential physical attacks.”

No place in public life

Ara told RSF: “As a journalist, it becomes risky to have pictures of this kind floating around because I am in the field quite a lot. What if people physically harm me? I wouldn't want this to happen to anybody else.”

This phenomenon is all the more shocking because it’s not the first time that Muslim women journalists have been “auctioned off” on social media. As RSF reported at the time, an app almost identical to BulliBai, called “SulliDeals,” appeared on GitHub in July 2021. “Sulli” is yet another degrading term for Muslim women that is much used by far-right activists linked to Hindu fundamentalism.

The Print website editor Fatima Khan, who was one of several journalists advertised as “deal of the day” on SulliDeals, described the effect of this especially shocking form of harassment to RSF. “The common thread among all the targets is that these are all vocal Muslim women who aren’t afraid of expressing themselves,” she said. “The idea is to humiliate them and send the message that they don't belong in public life.”

The most vocal women journalists are the favourite targets of the trolls who use these apps. “This has been happening to me for four to five years now,” well-known Radio Mirchi presenter Sayema told RSF. “What with the morphing of my photos and the use of undiplomatic language, this method of silencing a woman is not new. It’s as if they want to put me back in my place after I’ve been pretty vocal on Twitter.”

Impunity

The users of this kind of app seem to think that a certain category of people should not be allowed to be journalists. “In India we have seen a rise in communal targeting,” Sayema said. “Everything about you is targeted – firstly, you’re a woman, secondly you’re a Muslim and thirdly you are a popular and progressive liberal voice.”

The most worrying aspect, in her view, is the impunity accompanying the emergence of this phenomenon. “In July, there was systematic auctioning and that should have been a wakeup call, but nothing happened,” she said. Complaints were registered with the police, “but what happened after that?” she asked.

No one was charged and no one was arrested. This complicit lack of reaction from the authorities encourages those responsible for the harassment, who are steeped in the climate of hatred towards India’s Muslim minority that is fostered by Hindutva supporters. Hindutva is the Hindu nationalist ideology that spawned the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party led by Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister since 2014.

Vicious circle

For journalists from these minorities, especially women journalists, a vicious circle is slowly but surely closing on them. Harassment, impunity, intimidation, self-censorship, silence...

Hida Beg, who writes for The Quint, described this mechanism on Twitter. “You did nothing to stop this the last time, and here it is again. I have censored myself, I hardly speak here anymore, but still, I am being sold online, I’m being made ‘deals’ out of.”

Quratulain Rehbar, a freelance journalist from Muslim-majority Kashmir who was among those offered for sale on BulliBai, experienced the devastating effects of this harassment in a very personal way.

“I come from a conservative society, but I felt this was something we had to talk about,” she said. “This is a serious issue and I felt I should tell somebody who is also a victim that they are not alone. But I couldn’t tell my mother.” She explained that her mother recently asked her: “Do you think you should do something else?” The implication was that she should quit journalism for the sake of her personal safety. “I have no hope,” Rehbar added.

India is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

On December 31, a court in Hanoi sentenced Le Trong Hung to five years in prison and five years of probation after his release.

Le Trong Hung campaigned as an independent candidate for the 15th National Assembly election in May 2021.

Police arrested Le Trong Hung on March 27, two months before the election, and charged him with conducting propaganda against the state in violation of article 117(1) of the Vietnamese Penal Code. A Hanoi court is scheduled to hear his case on December 31. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.

“Imprisoning activists like Le Trong Hung who dare to run as independent candidates for parliament shows what a charade Vietnam’s elections are,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release him instead of prosecuting him for challenging the status quo.”

Le Trong Hung (also known as Hung Gan), 41, is a former government middle school teacher. In 2015, after filing a petition without success demanding reform to benefit students in a school in Hanoi, he quit teaching. In 2017 he began reporting as a citizen journalist on Facebook and YouTube, commenting on social issues and advising people petitioning the government.

He participated in anti-China protests and protests for environmental conservation. He used social media to share news about protests in Myanmar and the struggles of Vietnamese activists such as Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, and Pham Doan Trang. He also promoted education and knowledge about Vietnam’s Constitution, and offered people free copies of the constitution.

In February Le Trong Hung announced his plan to run as an independent candidate for the National Assembly election. He published his proposed policies, promising that, if elected, he would promote education about constitutional rights and campaign for laws to allow peaceful protests, freedom of association, and a citizens’ watchdog role over government. His policy agenda also included a call to amend the constitution and repeal articles granting supremacy to the Communist Party of Vietnam (article 4), allowing only a single trade union (article 10), and confirming state ownership of all land, water, and natural resources (article 53), among others.

On February 23 Le Trong Hung challenged Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to a debate on television, since Nguyen Phu Trong was running as the parliamentary candidate in the residential area where Le Trong Hung lives. One week later, police began to summon him repeatedly for questioning and placed him under intrusive surveillance.

Following his arrest on March 27, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s website ran an article accusing Le Trong Hung of “using social media to publish writing or livestream the distortion and disparagement of the government.” It chides him for “commenting in a distorted way the guidelines, paths and policies of the Party and the State.” The party’s post claimed that Le Trong Hung “continuously makes speeches that defame the government, oppose the State and dismiss the leadership role of the Party.” The article dismisses as “reactionary” comments that Le Trong Hung was arrested because he ran as an independent candidate and said that the authorities arrested him because he had been violating the law for a long time.

The authorities have also harassed Le Trong Hung’s family. They summoned for questioning his wife, Do Le Na, who is blind and taking care of their two young children. Officials also pressured her to vote in May in the parliamentary election, but she declined. Strangers in civilian clothes allegedly followed his 10-year-old son as he went home from school.

Police arrested two other people who tried to run as independent candidates for parliament in 2021; Le Van Dung (also known as Le Dung Vova) in Hanoi and Tran Quoc Khanh in Ninh Binh. Both were charged under article 117 of the Penal Code. In October a Ninh Binh provincial court convicted and sentenced Tran Quoc Khanh to six and a half years in prison.

In April police in Binh Thuan province detained a poet, Nguyen Quoc Huy (known as Dong Chuong Tu), a member of the Cham ethnic minority, and interrogated him for three days about his self-nomination for the election. They confiscated his passport before releasing him.

“Vietnam’s government brutally punishes anyone who dares to challenge them, and Le Trong Hung is yet another victim of that repression,” Robertson said. “So long as the country’s leaders don’t allow free and fair elections, the Communist Party of Vietnam will do as it pleases at the population’s expense.”

Police have detained at least eight NagaWorld union members on the evening of December 31, nearly two weeks after the casino workers’ union initiated a strike against alleged unfair dismissals and violations of the Labor Law.

Hundreds of terminated and active NagaWorld workers have been striking and protesting the termination of more than 1,300 workers, with one of the main demands being the reinstatement of around 300 workers who have refused to accept termination packages from the casino behemoth.

Phnom Penh Police chief Sar Thet confirmed Friday evening that at least eight union members were detained by the authorities, four of whom are being charged with incitement to cause chaos – an oft-used charge to target dissent in the country. The eight unioninsts include Chhim Sokhorn, who is a senior union leader.

Thet and labor group Central confirmed that union president Chhim Sithar was not one of the arrested unionists, despite her expressing concerns over imminent arrests.

“The ministry has opened negotiations for a solution, and authorities had called on them not to hold an illegal demonstration but they have not listened,” Thet said, adding that they routinely protested on public streets.

Sithar, the union’s president, said that the eight were arrested from the union’s office in Chamkarmon district.

“They surrounded [the office] quietly and arrested them at the union office. The [members] might not know because when it gets dark it gets more dangerous,” Sithar said.

“I am the one that they are mainly searching for. This is a threat to the right to expression, especially when they are leaders representing in the negotiations with NagaWorld.”

She said despite more than 10 days since negotiations began, there was no solution for the workers, but now authorities were arresting union members.

Negotiations among the Labor Ministry, NagaWorld representatives and the union have been at a standstill after the casino said last week its board would consider reinstating the laid-off staffers, according to a unionist.

Naly Pilorge, Licadho’s director, said there was no need to arrest the unionists and the casino company should work to resolve the dispute with workers.

“The authorities should release all detained union activists, who have done nothing wrong and have only peacefully advocated for their colleagues’ labor rights,” Pilorge said. “NagaWorld must work with the union to resolve the workers’ demands and comply with the Labor Law.”

Around 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, striking casino workers began holding each other’s hands as they faced down a team of an estimated 100 uniformed police officers.

Already, eight workers, including senior union leaders, had been arrested that evening from their union offices.

The protesters were now being prevented from leaving an area to the west of the casinos to go home, as authorities attempted to make further arrests.

“We are holding each other’s hands to prevent them from [more] arrests,” said Re Thearath. “They’re in pursuit of arresting people who have held the microphones.”

Around 9:30 p.m., police arrested a ninth worker, Touch Sereymeas, from in front of NagaWorld 2. Sereymeas had previously been misidentified as a Japanese agent in an anonymous Facebook page widely shared through government-aligned media channels.

About 150 workers remained near the Chuon Nath roundabout.

They were wary as reporters approached. “News media have distorted us a lot, especially Fresh News. They exaggerate and we are afraid of them distorting us,” Thearath said, referring to a news website that regularly serves as a government mouthpiece.

Some workers claimed that some plain-clothed officers had joined the protest pretending to be strikers, acting erratically and violently.

Around 11 p.m., more than 100 military police officers with riot shields and truncheons arrived on military trucks. Some of the soldiers carried assault rifles.

The workers were huddled near the entrance to the Phnom Penh Center, gradually moving south on Sothearos Blvd.

“We will still continue to demand justice in front of NagaWorld,” said a protester, Chhoun Sam An, despite the night’s turmoil. “We come here to protest because of the suffering, and we come from our heart.”

At midnight the workers dispersed. They said they had been successful in preventing the arrest of a 10th worker by banding together.

NagaCorp, to which the government has given a decadeslong monopoly license to operate in the capital, fired 1,300 workers last year amid major Covid-19 disruptions. Among the workers targeted for termination, however, were all top union leaders and representatives. Workers and labor groups have argued that this amounts to illegal union busting.

Around 300 workers are still contesting their terminations and pushing for reinstatement, and at one point last week the daily protests outside the casinos swelled to around 1,000 participants. Negotiations have largely stalled.

“How can they say we do it illegally, since we follow the law and procedures,” Sam An said of the strike. Workers had informed authorities, she said — though the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has deemed it illegal. “What about NagaWorld, which breached the law and silenced the union — [let’s see] whether any ministry takes any action.”

Phnom Penh police chief Sar Thet confirmed several of the arrests last night and accused the protesters of violating public order.

“The ministry has opened negotiations for a solution, and authorities had called on them not to hold an illegal demonstration but they have not listened,” Thet said. A municipal police spokesperson could not be reached on Saturday.

Chhim Sithar, the Naga union’s president who has spoken of her likely arrest, said by phone that she was in the dark about what was happening to her arrested colleagues.

“So far we haven’t gotten through them and we don’t know where they’ve taken them,” Sithar said.

But the workers had known to expect problems, she added. “Even though there were arrests, they will continue to protest until there is a solution.”

In a statement to shareholders last month, NagaCorp said casino operations would continue. “[T]he Board believes that the illegal strike has had no material negative impact on the overall business and operations of the Group.”

At least six NagaWorld union members were presented for questioning before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court Sunday afternoon, according to a local rights group, two days after authorities arrested 10 people in a crackdown on New Year’s Eve.

At least nine people were arrested from the Labor Rights Supporting Union office Friday evening, with the union releasing a statement over the weekend saying a tuk-tuk driver who ferried materials for the union was also arrested on Friday. A 10th individual was arrested outside NagaWorld 2.

The authorities have labeled the 14-day strike as an illegal demonstration, and hundreds of security personnel disrupted the workers’ protest on Friday night.

Am Sam Ath, Licadho’s deputy director for monitoring, said six individuals had been taken to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Sunday and then taken back to municipal police headquarters.

According to Licadho, the six unionists sent to court on Sunday were: Touch Sereymeas, Hai Sopheap, Re Sovandy, Kleang Sobin, Chhim Sokhorn and Sun Sreypich. Sam Ath said the remaining four union members were still at the police headquarters.

Phnom Penh police chief Sar Thet said on Friday that the arrested individuals were being investigated on alleged incitement charges.

The LRSU statement alleged that police had used excessive force during the arrests, surrounded the union’s office with cars, seized documents, and had now blocked the premises.

Ouk Sopheakmolyka, the partner of Touch Sereymeas, said it was disappointing that the authorities acted the way they did because the protest was against a private company and not the government. Sopheakmolyka added that some workers had congregated outside the police headquarters around 3 p.m. but did not stay longer than 60 minutes.

“The authorities are the ones who implement the law but then they abuse the law, and it is unacceptable,” said Sopheakmolyka. “This is sad because this is not a killing or robbery. They just protested about their work but the authorities’ actions against them was as if this was a serious crime and they had killed human beings.”

Sopheakmolyka added that the family was prevented from meeting Sereymeas and were told to deliver items and food when the union member was taken to court.

The LRSU union called for a strike on December 18 months after NagaWorld fired around 1,300 workers amid falling profits during the pandemic. Around 300 workers say they want to be reinstated, including top union leaders who were controversially part of the layoffs.

Chhim Sithar, LRSU’s president and one of the fired workers, said the arrests were aimed at disrupting the strike, but the protest would stop only when there was a fair solution.

“The workers’ nine points have not been solved yet and instead they arrested the [union] representatives, and the protest will not stop unless there is reasonable and acceptable compensation,” she said.

Reporters did not see any protesters outside NagaWorld over the weekend following Friday’s crackdown.

Municipal police spokesperson San Sokseyha has not responded to questions.

Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News has shut down after national security police raided its office and arrested seven people associated with the publication on Wednesday. It's yet another blow to diminishing press freedoms in the city. The independent news website announced on its Facebook page that it has ceased operations and dismissed all employees, effective immediately. The statement said that Stand News will immediately stop updating its website and social media accounts, which will be removed within days. That announcement comes after police arrested several current and former senior staff members associated with the publication, including pop star Denise Ho.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Steve Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the Hong Kong police's National Security Department, said that the arrests were connected to multiple "seditious" articles published by the outlet between July 2020 and November 2021. Li also said that police raided the news outlet's office in the city's Kwun Tong area, and froze about 61 million Hong Kong dollars ($7.8 million) worth of assets from the company. Some 200 police officers were involved in the newsroom raid, where they seized journalistic materials, according to a government statement earlier Wednesday. The arrests included Ho and Margaret Ng, a former pro-democracy lawmaker and prominent barristerr — both former members of the news outlet's board of directors. Also arrested were former Stand News chief editor Chung Pui-kuen and acting chief editor Patrick Lam, according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). While an initial government notice released Wednesday referenced a "conspiracy to publish seditious publications" — allegations that stem from a colonial-era crimes ordinance — the police involved with the Stand News case are national security officers. A turbulent year for the press The arrests come at the end of a turbulent year for press freedoms in Hong Kong, which dubs itself "Asia's World City" and once prided itself on being the region's preeminent international media hub. The city's once vibrant media landscape has withered since Beijing imposed a sweeping National Security Law on the city in 2020, which led to the shuttering of the fiercely outspoken pro-democracy outlet Apple Daily earlier this year.

"The Hong Kong Journalists Association is deeply concerned that the police have repeatedly arrested senior members of the media and searched the offices of news organizations containing large quantities of journalistic materials within a year," the HKJA said in a statement Wednesday, adding that it urged the government to "to protect press freedom in accordance with the Basic Law," the city's de facto constitution since 1997. Ronson Chan Ron-sing, the deputy assignment editor of Stand News and the chairman of HKJA, was also "taken away by the police," according to the association. Stand News had posted a video of police arriving at Chan's home for a raid earlier on Wednesday morning. Chan later told local media in Hong Kong that he had not been arrested. Ho, the Cantonese pop star and prominent pro-democracy activist, was arrested at her home at 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to her assistant, who asked not to be named. Police spent over two hours at the singer's home and seized phones and computers as well as her ID card and passport, her assistant told CNN Business. At the Stand News office on Wednesday, police gathered about 30 boxes of "evidence," a press officer for the police at the site told CNN Business. Hong Kong authorities defended Wednesday's arrests as necessary to prevent "bad apples" from falsely representing themselves as media. "Anybody who attempts to make use of media work as a tool to pursue their political purpose or other interest contravenes the law, particularly offenses that endanger national security," Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee said when asked by reporters about the arrests at an unrelated press event. "They are the evil elements that damage press freedom. Professional media workers should recognize that these are the bad apples who are abusing their position simply by wearing a false coat of media worker," Lee added. 'The stakes are high' The HKJA has continued to speak out in defense of press freedom, despite facing criticism from Hong Kong officials and Chinese state media. The latest police actions came hours after the HKJA hosted its annual dinner on Tuesday, which had been delayed for more than a year due to coronavirus restrictions. "We know that the stakes are high, but press freedom has been the backbone of Hong Kong's success," Chan said in a speech at the dinner. "Hong Kong will always need the truth as well as journalists. No matter how difficult the road ahead will be, the association will strive to never fail."

Founded after student-led demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2014, Stand News rose to prominence during the city's pro-democracy protests in 2019 with its breaking news coverage and critical editorials and opinion pieces. It was considered to be among the city's most outspoken outlets, often publishing hard-hitting reports — even after the enactment of the National Security Law. It is the second independent media outlet targeted by national security officers, after Apple Daily, which was shut down in June after hundreds of police officers raided its office, arrested executives and froze its assets under national security charges. The raids on Stand News also come one day after jailed Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai was hit with a charge of conspiracy to print, publish and distribute seditious publications, the same charge as what authorities are now accusing the Stand News affiliates of. Lai was sentenced to 13 months in prison this month for inciting and participating in the city's annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown last year. Authorities had declared that assembly illegal, owing to coronavirus restrictions. Lai was already serving time in prison for other charges. A 'shockwave through Hong Kong' Speaking at the HKJA's annual dinner Tuesday, Chan described the arrest of Lai and his colleagues and the subsequent shuttering of the Apple Daily as a "shockwave throughout Hong Kong" which "had a big impact on news workers who are still struggling in the frontline every day." Chan also acknowledged the increasing difficulty for the HKJA to fill the positions at its executive committee, due to concerns about their personal safety and career prospects. "In fact, the position of vice-chairperson is still vacant and will remain so until November. It shows that many colleagues perceive that becoming an HKJA executive committee member could make one's life precarious," Chan said. In a statement Wednesday, the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong said it was "deeply concerned" over the arrests associated with Stand News. "These actions are a further blow to press freedom in Hong Kong and will continue to chill the media environment in the city following a difficult year for the city's news outlets," it said. The National Security Law, which was drafted in Beijing and promulgated in Hong Kong last year, criminalized acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security — with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for all four. Since the law's enactment, the city's pro-democracy camp has been virtually wiped out, with prominent figures either in jail or in exile overseas. A series of civil groups have disbanded, and more recently, several universities have removed statues promoting democracy or commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre overnight, sparking concerns about freedoms on campuses. The Hong Kong government has repeatedly denied criticism that the law has stifled freedoms, claiming instead that it has restored order in the city after the 2019 protest movement.

The special court inside Insein Prison handed down sentences against two prominent student leaders on Thursday.

Aye Aung, a 45-year-old former member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), received three years in prison for his role in anti-coup protests in Yangon’s Tamwe Township in March.

“The court decided that it was apparent that he led the protests,” his lawyer said.

Aye Aung, who took part in a student-led uprising against military rule in 1996, was previously sentenced to 59 years in prison by Myanmar’s former military junta. He spent 14 years behind bars until his release in 2012.

Fellow former ABFSU executive Min Thway Thit, meanwhile, was given a year in prison for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license.

The sentence handed down to the 38-year-old former political prisoner was the minimum for the charge, which is punishable by up to three years in prison, because the offense was related to his volunteer work with Covid-19 patients.

“There wasn’t enough evidence that Min Thway Thit owned or drove the car, but it was apparent that he was using it to transport patients during the pandemic,” his lawyer said.

A day earlier, another ABFSU activist got two years and one month in prison on charges stemming from his political activities in September of last year.

Wai Yan Phyo Moe was charged with violating Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law for handing out and posting leaflets in Yangon’s Mahabandoola Park calling for the restoration of internet services in Rakhine State.

The sentence was handed down by a court in Kyauktada Township. The 23-year-old ABFSU president faces similar charges in two other townships in Yangon, as well as charges of incitement under Sections 505a and 505b of the Penal Code.

According to local media reports, at least 62 junta opponents, including politicians, activists, artists and other public figures, were sentenced on Thursday.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group based in exile, the regime is currently holding 8,331 people on charges related to their anti-coup activities, of whom only 487 have so far been convicted.

A number of Afghan women have been injured in a stampede caused by Taliban guards firing in the air during a protest in Kabul against discriminatory measures including new travel restrictions on women.

The protest on December 28 came amid rising anger -- both within the country and internationally -- over the Taliban's moves to restrict the rights of women.

Participants told RFE/RL that up to 130 women attended the protest in Kabul, and shots fired in the air by Taliban militants trying to disperse the demonstration prompted fleeing protesters to fall and trample one another. Several women sustained injuries in the stampede, witnesses said.

It was not immediately clear how many women were injured in the incident.

Afghanistan's Asvaka news agency reported that the incident occurred near the hospital of the Italian Emergency humanitarian organization. It gave no information on victims or wounded.

Reshmina, one of the protesters who suffered injuries while falling on a gas tank, told RFE/RL she was too scared to see a doctor for treatment.

"My face is injured so badly that even now when I speak with you, I am in much pain. We couldn't even go to a doctor because we don't feel safe, we are threatened. Even now, while speaking with you I am shaking [with fear]."

There was a second, much smaller protest in the western part of Kabul during which women accused the Taliban of killing soldiers who served under the previous government that was toppled by the militant group in mid-August, RFE/RL correspondents reported.

Taliban officials did not immediately respond to requests from RFE/RL for comment.

On December 26, officials said that women seeking to travel more than 72 kilometers should not be offered transport unless they were accompanied by a close male relative.

In the advisory distributed by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, all vehicle drivers also were directed to refrain from playing music in their cars, and not to pick up female passengers who do not wear an Islamic hijab.

Since taking over Afghanistan, the Taliban have named an all-male government that is dominated by veteran militants vowing a return to strict Shari'a law, a stark blow to Afghan and international hopes that the Taliban's second stint in power will prove less restrictive than two decades ago.

The hard-line Islamist group has shut down the former administration's Women's Affairs Ministry and significantly curtailed women's rights. The vast majority of women have been banned from working, while many girls and women have been deprived of the right to an education.

"Women can't travel alone or go to schools and colleges...this kind of retrogressive thinking is dangerous," Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said late on December 27 in a rare rebuke of the Taliban from neighboring Pakistan.

Last month, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered Afghanistan's television channels to stop showing dramas featuring women actors and said female television journalists must wear a hijab.

Women's rights were severely curtailed during the Taliban's previous rule in the 1990s, when they were then forced to wear the all-covering burqa, only allowed to leave home with a male chaperone, and banned from work, education, and sports.

On January 7, the Islamabad High Court will frame contempt charges against The News International’s owner, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, and two of its staff, Aamir Ghauri and Ansar Abbasi, for publishing an affidavit accusing Pakistan’s former Chief Justice, Saqib Nisar, of corruption. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned by the court's decision to commence punitive proceedings against journalists and calls for the annulment of all charges.

Senior journalist with The News International, Ansar Abbasi, published a report on November 15 last year containing an affidavit accusing former Chief Justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, of misconduct while in office. The affidavit was prepared by the former Chief Justice of Gilgit-Baltistan, Rana Shamim, and alleged that Nisar conspired to deny bail to several leaders of the PML-N opposition leadership before the 2018 elections.

On December 28, the Islamabad High Court moved to frame contempt charges against Abbasi and Ghauri, with the case slated to continue on January 7. If successful, the charges would effectively punish journalists for conducting their professional duties, seriously jeopardising the future of reporting and the media’s freedom of expression in Pakistan. Owner of Jang Geo Media Group, which oversees The News International, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was also implicated in the proceedings. Renowned for its critical investigations of Pakistani politicians, Jang Geo Media Group is one of Pakistan’s largest media groups. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman has previously served eight months in prison in 2020 for a decades-old property deal.

Before publishing the article, Abbasi verified that the affidavit was genuine, and was prepared by Shamim. Abbasi said in court that he only intended to report the existence of an affidavit, not about the veracity of the facts narrated in it.

Pakistan's press clubs' and journalist bodies have expressed great concern for journalists and editors targeted for reporting which is critical of authorities. According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, Pakistani media workers suffered under the harshest clampdown on dissent by any government during 2020 and 2021.

Three activists, one a 17 year old, were arrested on Tuesday night (28 December) for holding up banners with the message “abolish Section 112” at Wongwian Yai, where a crowd of people were waiting to see King Vajiralongkorn and his entourage.

A video clip of the incident shows the activists being surrounded by men wearing royal volunteer service yellow shirts and scarves. The men dragged them away, injuring them in the process.

Five activists were detained during the incident. Three - Sainam, Baipor, and Tawan (last names withheld) - were taken to the nearby Bupharam Police Station. Another two unidentified individuals were released.

A second video clip of the event shows a woman running up to the King’s vehicle as he was getting out of the car. She was immediately held back by guards.

According to Pol Lt Col Seksan Pa-taesang from Buphharam Police Station, the woman was sent to the Somdej Chao Phraya Institute of Psychiatry. When our reporter asked what charges are being filed against the three activists, he immediately hung up.

Tawan, 20, said that they arrived at Wongwian Yai around 16.00 and were planning to raise their banners when the royal motorcade reached the scene to communicate directly with the King. Although concerned that they might be attacked by royalists, she said that they still wanted to exercise their right to express their opinions.

Baipor said that they planned to stand on the footpath but while waiting, were approached by a plainclothes officer who appeared to recognise Sainam. According to Baipor, they told the officer that they were only holding banners and did not intend to cause harm. Unidentified men in yellow shirts then surrounded them. In footage of the incident, formally clad police officers receiving the royal motorcade took part in the arrest.

Tawan added that the men in yellow shirt surrounded them for around an hour. Once the Queen appeared, they lifted up their banner, but the men immediately pulled it down. She said that they were not planning to make noise, but when the men snatched their banners away, they began shouting “abolish Section 112.” They had earlier decided to do this if they were assaulted. The men dragged them away, putting their hands over the activists’ mouth and choking them in the process.

Tawan said that instead of being brought to a police station, they were taken into a nearby alley and made to wait there until the royal motorcade left. Angered by the treatment, the activists demanded to know what crime they were being charged with. Instead of answering, the officers ordered them to sit down and pushed them to the ground. Around 20.00, they were taken to the Buppharam Police Station.

According to Tawan, when the men sought to physically silence her by placing their hands over her mouth, they knocked her contact lenses out of position, pushing them deep inside her eyelids. She was later able to remove them but Sainam and Baipor both suffered injuries. Baipor was cut on the lips.

Asked about the woman who ran towards the King’s vehicle, Tawan said that she was not part of their group and that they never approached the royal entourage.

The activists were released a little after midnight. They were charged with causing a public commotion and failing to comply with police orders. Each received a 1000-baht fine. Following their release, they said that they were going to a hospital to make a record of their injuries and would by pressing charges against their assailants.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reports that police released the other two activists as they were only taking pictures of the protest, not shouting or holding up banners.

A student activist has died in Myanmar military custody, and the junta cremated his body without informing his relatives.

Ko Aung Bone Kyaw, a third year geology student at Yangon University, was detained on Sunday in Yangon’s Tamwe Township. He was taken to an interrogation center where he died the following day, according to the Yangon University Students Union. He was cremated at Yayway Cemetery the same day

“The military council didn’t inform [his family about the funeral]. His family found out from their contacts only just before the funeral. They rushed to Yayway, but were unable to see the body before it was cremated,” said Ko Aung Kaung Hset, the chair of the Yangon University Students Union.

Ko Aung Bone Kyaw’s family declined to comment out of concerns for their safety when contacted by The Irrawaddy.

“We heard that three other students were arrested along with Ko Aung Bone Kyaw. One of his classmates is now at the interrogation center,” said Ko Aung Kaung Hset.

It remains unclear why the students were arrested and how Ko Aung Bone Kyaw died.

Yangon Unversity’s Geology Department issued a letter of condolence over Ko Aung Bone Kyaw’s death, in which lecturers and students vowed to fight the dictatorship until the end.

His death in custody follows the jailing a few days ago of an executive member of the Yangon University Students Union. Ko Aung Phone Maw was sentenced to three years in prison by a junta court for incitement.

“The military regime is harshly persecuting young political activists who oppose military rule. Student union members held in Insein Prison are subject to solitary confinement and torture. Those who were beaten for their participation in protests were denied medical treatment,” said Yangon University Students Union chair Ko Aung Kaung Hset.

Political prisoners in Yangon’s Insein Prison joined the rest of the country in a silent strike on December 10 to mark International Human Rights Day. The Myanmar people stayed at home for the day to show their opposition to military rule.

Around 89 political prisoners and detainees, including members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, were beaten and held in isolation for participating in the silent strike. Those injured have yet to receive medical treatment.

On December 19, freelance photojournalist Ko Zaw Lin Htut, and Ma Su Yee Lin from Yangon Eastern University Students Union were detained at a Yangon protest. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

1,380 people were killed by the junta between February 1 and December 28, according to rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the international community to toughen its sanctions on Myanmar’s military junta after a journalist who was covering the plight of refugees in the southeastern state of Kayin was killed during an army artillery attack near the border with Thailand on 25 December.

Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung, also known as A Sai K, was the second journalist to die as a result the junta’s violence in less than two weeks.

He was killed instantly by a gunshot in Lay Kay Kaw Myothit, a town in Myawaddy district, during an artillery attack by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, against members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), which has been offering armed resistance to the junta.

“Sai Wing Aung paid with his life for his determination to provide his fellow citizens with coverage of the terror that the armed forces have been inflicting on Myanmar’s population since last February’s military coup,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “He died a hero and his fight must not be in vain. We urge the international community to impose new targeted sanctions on members of the ruling junta in order to end the current escalation in terror.”

World’s second biggest jailer of journalists

Freelance photographer Soe Naing was the first journalist to die at the junta’s hands. Held since 10 December and badly injured during interrogation, he died of his injuries on 14 December, as RSF reported the same day. Soldiers had arrested him while he was covering a silent street protest in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.

In its annual round-up of abusive treatment and violence against journalists published last week, RSF reported that a record number of journalists are being detained worldwide at the end of 2021 and that Myanmar has become the world’s second biggest jailer of journalists, after China.

Two journalists were being detained in Myanmar in connection with their work at the end of 2020, but Myanmar’s prisons are now holding at least 57, according to RSF’s press freedom violations barometer, which is constantly updated.

Myanmar is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index that RSF published in early 2021.