I had been captive in Afghanistan for about two weeks when the government of my home country, Canada, contacted those attempting to negotiate my release. They told negotiators to get me on the phone the next day, when the United States (US) military would be flying a drone over where they thought I was being held, in order to determine my whereabouts.The negotiators were unable to secure that concession.
As media practitioners across the world gather tomorrow to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, reporters in the Philippines have little to celebrate.For the third year in a row, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Global Impunity Index has named the Philippines as the country with the most unsolved murders of journalists, with perpetrators of 41 killings over the past 10 years yet to be served justice.The Philippines was second to Iraq fro
Being a journalist has never been easy. Many of them work long hours, travel to faraway places and go through plenty of mud just to get a story. Being a journalist in Southeast Asia however, requires an even stronger character. While the rest of the world might lament that the social media fuelled media landscape helps conceive fake news, many journalists in the region are being locked up for merely reporting the truth.
