canadian journalism: not so crazy
(please do excuse the lack of apostrophes on this keyboard from a quaint hostel on the outskirts of tokyo)
links lacking as well, i cant even work this computer. but were writing to point out, as rrj editor aaron leaf has pointed out in some wartorn regions, for all the scrutiny we give our ken whytes and lord blacks, we dont have it so bad. at least we dont lead the world in number of jailed journalists as china does. sad to see that the united states ranks third, along with libya or some such country. and at least when we get jailed, theres no fretting over whether youll even LIVE, let alone think about getting out.
if you click on to some of the media in Hong Kong (the south china morning post, or the standard), their concerns over press freedom are a thousand times more warranted then some of what we fret about at home. a local university keeps a yearly survey since 1992 on how many of the citys citizens simply TRUST the special administrative body set up to govern them. not do you trust harper to lower the gst or trust the liberals to not be scandalously handling your money, but just if you trust these people to not mimic their economically liberal, but politically and socially-restrictive counterparts in Beijing. There are no freedom of information rules in HK, a freedom a lot of investigative journalist here take for granted. we dont have to live in fear of being arrested for what we write about on the internet, a phenomenon that repressive regimes across asia are having difficulty supressing.
im not sure to what extent the canucks have given coverage to the UNs international press freedom day, but it was worth at least an entire page plus editorial of ink in the SCMP.
and from the at least were still getting paid department:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=44479
the national post really isnt all that bad when you look at HKs ming pao daily news. as reported in the SCMP, and not ming paos sister english daily The Standard, striking employees have started filing complaints with the local labour board over unpaid wages. ming pao has been bleeding for a few years now, apparently, bad enough now where they cant even pay their reporters. the entire political news teams has already left the paper. those who tender resignations have the backing of the labour board that they will recieve full compensation, severance, pensions from ming pao. the editor is quoted as expecting an onslaught of i quit letters in the coming days. so hey, at least were still working in canada.
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