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By ANNE MCNEILLY Reprinted with permission from the Centre for Free Expression Teaching a news “ethics” course in the fledgling journalism program at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, proved to be a challenge, given the restraints on freedom of expression now occurring under the regime of President Xi Jinping. It was only April, but I could feel the sweat trickling down my neck in the oppressive heat in Guangzhou – a city of 12 million about two hours north of Hong Kong on the coastal mainland. But the temperature wasn’t why I was sweating. My task was to teach media…
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By MAIJA KAPPLER Special to the RJRC An archaic Canadian law against criminal libel is being used with increasing frequency to shut down political dissent and criticism of police officers, judges and powerful institutions, new research by Ryerson University journalism professor Lisa Taylor suggests. Convictions for criminal libel averaged 18 cases per year between 2005 and 2008, Taylor found. She and her research partner David Pritchard of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee combed through digital archives, criminal judgements and media reports to assemble the data and found that the number of convictions has grown steadily. Between 2009 and 2012, there were…
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By ROBERT LIWANAG Special to the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre February 29, 2016 Neutrality in journalism limits the civil liberties of reporters and should be abandoned, said the director of Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression during a recent panel discussion. Citing CNN’s two-week suspension of global affairs correspondent Elise Labott over a tweet last November, James Turk said neutrality fails to distinguish an institution’s business interests from the journalist’s public obligations. Labott’s tweet—“Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish”—was posted in response to a U.S. House of Representatives bill halting the admission of Syrian refugees. “ (Neutrality) is based…
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