(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 31 December 1998 RSF release reviewing the year in press freedom: Thursday 31 December Press release 1998 survey Fewer journalists killed but still as many in jail In 1998, 19 journalists were killed in the course of their work or because of their opinions, 487 were arrested, 697 were […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 31 December 1998 RSF release reviewing the
year in press freedom:
Thursday 31 December
Press release
1998 survey
Fewer journalists killed but still as many in jail
In 1998, 19 journalists were killed in the course of their work or because
of their opinions, 487 were arrested, 697 were assaulted or threatened, and
501 media were victims of repression. On 1 January 1999, 93 journalists are
still imprisoned worldwide. Freedom of the press is trodden underfoot by
authoritarian governments in 30 countries where over two billion people
live. In 65 other countries, two billion more men and women have to make do
with media that are kept under close observation.
Our figure of 19 journalists killed is lower than those given for 1998 by
other organisations working to defend press freedom. The reason is that
Reporters Sans Frontières only counts those cases where it has been
established beyond doubt that the journalists were killed in the course of
their work, or simply because of their profession. Murder has become less
popular as a way of silencing those who upset the authorities by offering an
independent viewpoint to the public. Since 1994 – when 103 journalists were
killed, 48 of them in Rwanda and 18 in Algeria – the number of journalists
murdered has been falling. This significant decrease is mainly due to the
end of conflicts such as those in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and
Chechnya, and to the changing nature of the violence in Algeria. The salient
feature of the killings in 1998 was that they concerned mostly journalists
investigating government corruption and collusion with criminal
organisations. This was the case in Bangladesh (one journalist killed),
Brazil (one), Colombia (four), Mexico (one), Philippines (one), Russia (two)
and Thailand (one). A typical example was the murder of Russian journalist
Larissa Yudina on 8 June in the autonomous province of Kalmykia, in the
south of the country. Yudina, editor of the daily Sovitskaya Kalmykia
Sevodnya, was investigating allegations of embezzlement implicating
President Kirsan Iliumjinov. The other killings took place in Afghanistan
(one), Canada (one), Congo (one), Ethiopia (one), Georgia (one), Iran (one),
Mexico (one) and Sierra Leone (one).
The number of journalists imprisoned remained stable compared to 1997. On 1
January 1999, 93 were in jail compared to 90 a year earlier. The countries
that keep most journalists in prison are still Ethiopia (15), China (14),
Syria (ten) and Burma (seven). Ill-treatment is common in Syrian and Burmese
prisons. Nizar Nayyouf, winner of the 1998 Reporters Sans
Frontières/Fondation de France prize, who is serving a ten-year sentence, is
suffering from cancer for which he has been refused treatment. In Burma, Win
Tin, also sentenced to ten years, spent several weeks locked up in a cage
intended for guard dogs at Insein prison, Rangoon. But the country where
journalists are most often arrested and where torture is most widespread is
still Turkey. In 1998, 260 journalists were arrested there, 60 were
assaulted and about ten tortured. In 80% of those cases, it was the police
who were responsible.
The situation has worsened in several countries. In Nawar Sharif’s Pakistan,
for instance, the independent press is increasingly under threat, caught
between the growing influence of the Taliban militia in the north of the
country and a government that is moving towards radical Islam. In the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent-Désiré Kabila continues to arrest and
imprison journalists. The government of Slobodan Milosevic in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia took advantage of NATO’s threats of air strikes to
launch a campaign against independent media: three daily newspapers and two
radio stations were closed down, and a new press law was passed that hits
hard at journalists’ rights. In Iran, radicals close to the Islamic
Republic’s spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, are thought to have been behind
the murder of intellectuals, including journalist Mohamad Mokhtari. In Cuba,
where three journalists are currently behind bars, Fidel Castro continues
his policy of harassing independent news agencies.
Even so, there was good news for freedom of the press in some countries.
Since the resignation of President Suharto in May 1998, no journalists have
been imprisoned in Indonesia, about 100 newspapers have been launched,
non-government organisations such as the Alliance of Independent Journalists
(AJI) have been officially recognised and the government has promised to
pass a law guaranteeing press freedom. Following the death of Nigerian
President Sani Abacha in June, only two journalists are still in prison
compared to 13 previously.
