The Wall Street Journal reports on a social media crackdown in China. Leading social media figures have been interrogated or detained, while others have been warned about their activity as the country widens its laws to permit easier prosecution. The Weibo social media site has been particularly targeted.
Roy Greenslade, the media writer for The Guardian, looks at the threats to journalists in Yemen in the context of some progress on their rights. A Human Rights Watch report says Yemeni journalists are facing violence and intimidation from the current and former governments, rebels, secessionists and religious conservatives.
The editor of Gawker, in an interview with The Globe and Mail, dismisses the need for an "additional" set of ethics for journalists. John Cook says he is guided by basic ethical precepts, no different than a plumber's, and that another layer of guides isn't necessary. "I think it’s more instructive to think of reporters the way people think of tradesman and women. I think it’s a trade rather than a profession – it’s certainly starting to pay more like a trade than a profession. And I think the idea of building up a superstructure of journalism ethics is part of a process of trying to exclude the hoi polloi from the process of reporting and commenting on the news," he said.