(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is the full text of a press release issued by CPJ in connection with the release of their annual survey of press freedom conditions throughout the world: Washington, D.C., March 26: At least 129 journalists were in prison in 24 countries at the end of 1997, and 26 journalists were murdered […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is the full text of a press release issued by CPJ
in connection with the release of their annual survey of press freedom
conditions throughout the world:
Washington, D.C., March 26: At least 129 journalists were in prison in 24
countries at the end of 1997, and 26 journalists were murdered in the past
year because of their profession, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
reported in a worldwide survey of press freedom conditions.
The 443-page “Attacks on the Press in 1997”, released at a 10 a.m. news
conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., includes detailed
analyses of press freedom issues in 117 countries and six special reports.
The book is the annual report of the New York-based CPJ, an independent,
nonprofit organization that works on behalf of journalists around the world.
The most disturbing trend of 1997 was the brutal suppression of Nigeria’s
struggling independent media by Gen. Sani Abacha, who is now holding 17
journalists in prison, including Christine Anyanwu, recipient of CPJ’s 1997
International Press Freedom Award and the 1998 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World
Press Freedom Prize.
Turkey released 40 journalists from prison during the year but still holds
at least 29 journalists in jail, more than any other country. Ethiopia was
holding 16 journalists in prison at the end of 1997, breaking its public
pledge to stop the suppression of independent media outlets.
“We ask journalists everywhere to join CPJ’s campaign to free imprisoned
journalists in Nigeria, Turkey, and other countries that criminalize
independent reporting”, said CPJ board member Peter Arnett of CNN at today’s
Washington press conference. Arnett joined a CPJ mission in 1997 that led to
the release of seven imprisoned Turkish newspaper editors.
At least 26 journalists were killed in 14 countries during the year,
according to the report released today, including 7 in India and 4 in
Colombia. CPJ continues to investigate 10 other journalists’ deaths where a
causal link to the victims’ work is suspected. A 10-year chart details the
474 murders of journalists by region and country.
In Mexico, where three journalists were murdered and scores more face
criminal prosecution for reporting on crime and corruption, local
journalists are banding together to defend themselves against legal
persecution and violence. In Hong Kong the handover of sovereignty to China
has left journalists fearful of intimidation by Beijing and disturbed by
self-censorship by publishers or local independent media outlets. In
Algeria, authorities continued efforts to quash independent reporting of the
country’s bloody six-year civil conflict. While no journalists were killed
in Algeria in 1997, nearly 60 have been assassinated since May
1993 journalists there still live in constant fear for their lives. In
Jordan, a kingdom that portrays itself as an emerging democracy, state
restrictions on independent media left press freedom hanging in the balance.
CPJ documented 24 countries at year’s end where journalists are in prison.
There were 15 in jail in China, 8 in Burma, 7 in Kuwait, 5 each in Syria and
Vietnam, and 4 in Peru. In addition, CPJ lists another 30 cases of
journalists whose imprisonment may also be due to their professional
duties 13 in Turkey, 5 in China, and 4 in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(formerly Zaire).
“When journalists are murdered or brutalized”, CPJ Chairman Gene Roberts
writes in the book’s preface, “it is almost always by some government, some
organization, some criminal cartel, some individual wanting to prevent the
flow of embarrassing or incriminating information to the public. If the
assassins learned that when they killed journalists the inevitable result
was that they got more coverage, rather than less, the killings would
subside.”
Compiled from the first-hand research of CPJ’s professional staff, “Attacks
on the Press” in 1997 is the single most authoritative, comprehensive, and
up-to-date source of information on the status of press freedom around the
world. The book documents in compelling detail nearly 500 attacks carried
out to silence journalists and news organizations through physical assault,
imprisonment, censorship, and legal harassment. And it describes CPJ’s
action on behalf of hundreds of journalists through emergency response and
fact-finding missions, personal appeals by CPJ board members and staff,
grassroots efforts, diplomatic channels, and media campaigns.
“The ruthless persecution of local journalists in Nigeria was the single
most troubling development over the past year”, said CPJ Executive Director
William A. Orme, Jr. “Although Turkey still holds more journalists in jail
than any other country, we are encouraged that the number is less than half
what it was in 1996. We continue to urge the Turkish government to fulfill
its pledge to repeal laws used to prosecute journalists.”
Six special reports focus attention on areas CPJ views as leading indicators
for press freedom worldwide:
Turkey: How a new government presented an opportunity for press freedom
reform
and the release of imprisoned journalists.
Nigeria: How CPJ’s campaign to gain freedom for jailed editor Christine
Anyanwu
aids all imprisoned Nigerian journalists.
Jordan: How the government has sought to muzzle independent
reporting of
sensitive political issues such as the Jordan-Israel peace treaty.
Mexico: How Mexico’s increasingly independent press boldly and
bravely challenges the status quo.
Hong Kong: How the transfer of rule to China may threaten independent
journalism in the former crown colony.
Armenia and Azerbaijan: How journalists in these hostile neighboring
republics cope with their Soviet-era legacy.
“Attacks on the Press” in 1997 provides detail on these regional trends:
AFRICA
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Laurent Kabila seized power from
former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, journalists who hoped for a freer press
climate suffer under his tendency to target both state and private media for
reprisals.
Nigeria took the regional lead for imprisoned journalists, with 17
as compared to last year’s eight, reflecting the escalating brutality of
Gen. Sani Abacha’s rule.
Ethiopia’s 16 imprisoned journalists were all newly
jailed in 1997.
In sub-Saharan Africa, governments ruthlessly use criminal
libel suits to stifle the media, placing tremendous financial burdens on the
independent press.
The influence of international radio networks remains
strong in this
region where newspapers and magazines reach only a fraction of the
population.
Newspapers in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania,
Zambia and Zimbabwe post Internet editions that link to African communities
abroad and are reversing the historical flow of information, but journalists
remain vulnerable because they work in environments with repressive press
laws, weak judiciaries, and exploitative officials.
THE AMERICAS
The press that helped topple military juntas in the region is gaining
strength but faces new threats from criminal gangs and corrupt police.
In
Argentina, Peru, and Colombia, the press has emerged as the institution that
inspires the most public confidence.
Yet growing independence and power of
the media in this region of newly consolidated democratic regimes has
exposed journalists to new dangers; 10 were murdered for doing their
jobs reporting on crime and corruption.
In Argentina, the brutal murder of a
news photographer galvanized public support for the media.
In Mexico,
although three journalists were murdered for reporting on the drug trade,
threat of prosecution under Mexico’s arcane 1917 libel law remains a more
immediate concern than the possibility of violent attack.
In Colombia, where
four journalists were murdered, the weakened
government of Ernesto Samper extends its influence through control of
television and radio licenses.
Journalists in Peru say the country’s National
Intelligence Service has launched a campaign of legal action and terror to
keep them from damaging re-election prospects of President Alberto
Fujimori.
The violence has fueled the formation of press freedom
organizations throughout the region, and journalists have begun to use the
power of the press to bring attacks on their colleagues to public
attention.
In Cuba, where CPJ recorded more attacks on journalists than any
other country in the Americas, the fledgling independent press movement
faced systematic government persecution, including jail
sentences, beatings, and forced exile.
ASIA
In Cambodia, a violent coup disrupted progress toward a free press.
In Hong
Kong,
observers watched the press for signs of interference by China after the 1
July handover.
In India, political violence claimed the lives of seven
journalists, more than in any other country during the year, and the
government continued its restrictions on press access to contested parts of
Assam, Kashmir, and Manipur, where separatist violence continues to attract
stern military responses.
In Pakistan, newspapers also came under physical
assault during sectarian tensions prompting violence by political
leaders.
Economic turmoil roiled the region, largely the result of the cozy
relationship between governments and financial institutions that the press
did not report, either because of self-censorship or government
prohibitions.
In Malaysia, the prime minister tried to blame the crisis on
international currency speculators and their alleged allies in the Western
media.
By year’s end in Indonesia, President Suharto, who had long
suppressed press coverage of his family’s involvement in the country’s
economy, was forced to agree to dismantle a portion of his financial empire,
and journalists were hopeful the crisis might force open the country’s timid
media culture.
Elsewhere, there was evidence of democratic growth.
A new
constitution in Thailand contains the most sweeping free press provisions in
Asia.
In South Korea, Kim Dae Jung responded to his election as president
with a promise to protect press freedom, and in Taiwan, in a verdict widely
seen as a victory for press freedom, the ruling Kuomintang lost a landmark
criminal libel suit party leaders brought against reporters for a Hong
Kong-based magazine.
The release from prison and forced exile of dissident
writer Wei Jingsheng did nothing to ease conditions for the press in China,
where 15 journalists remain in prison, newspapers are tightly controlled,
and the Internet is censored.
CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE REPUBLICS OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
Despite greater freedom and the proliferation of private media, across the
region news organizations are still manipulated by and subjected to pressure
from governments and burgeoning business interests.
Poland, Hungary, and the
Czech Republic have fostered free media climates, and in some places, like
Russia, new private media monoliths battle for control of the airwaves in
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the media remain concentrated in the hands of
authoritarian rulers, yet the autocratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has
developed a vigorous independent press which functions despite official
harassment.
The most alarming trend across the region remains the persistence
of
violence against journalists.
While the overall number of killings, most of
which
occurred in war zones, has declined since the end of the conflicts in
Tajikistan, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia, murders and beatings of
journalists in nonconflict areas have become routine in such places as the
Russian Federation and Ukraine.
In and around Chechnya, an epidemic of
kidnappings of foreigners by armed bands seeking ransom makes it the most
dangerous place for journalists assigned to the region.
Beatings, death
threats, detentions, bombings, arson, and financial pressures have become
routine means of intimidating the press across the region.
In Belarus, press
conditions under President Lukashenko are worse than in the final years of
the Soviet
Union.
Bosnian journalists fear crossing borders between the Serb, Croat, and
Muslim-controlled areas because of harassment by local police.
Yugoslav
leader
Slobodan Milosevic shut down 77 independent radio and television stations in
July and August after announcing new, convoluted frequency licensing
procedures.
In Croatia, President Franjo Tudjman continued to exert pressure
on independent media with hundreds of libel suits filed against them.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Political violence was the backdrop for government restrictions on the press
in Algeria and Turkey, where authorities continued efforts to quash
independent reporting of two of the region’s bloodiest conflicts.
In Algeria,
the press reported on the massacres of civilians, but fear of reprisal and
lack of access to information kept journalists from identifying the
perpetrators.
Similarly, Turkish journalists faced ongoing state efforts to
silence independent coverage of the 13-year military conflict with Kurdish
insurgents.
In Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, and Syria, the state
controls the broadcast media and press, allowing no outlets for dissenting
voices and the Palestinian press has become more submissive to the
heavy-handed practices of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
In May,
Jordan’s King Hussein put his stamp of approval on draconian press
amendments that nearly eliminated the country’s feisty weekly newspapers,
known for their independent reporting on government policies, and in
Lebanon, the government instituted prior censorship of news and political
programs
broadcast abroad by satellite, while the media remain subject to broadcast
and press laws that restrict news content.
Press laws in Iran, Egypt,
Lebanon, and Yemen enable authorities to prosecute journalists for reporting
on alleged government corruption and other controversial domestic
issues.
International and Arabic satellite networks have become a popular
alternative for news programming for residents of Tehran, Damascus, and
Algiers, providing a means to circumvent government-imposed restrictions on
the flow of information.
Internet use has begun to spread gradually in many
countries through the region despite government efforts to limit its use.
To order copies of Attacks on the Press in 1997, call 212/465-1004, or write
to
the Committee to Protect Journalists, 330 Seventh Ave., 12th Floor, New
York, NY
10001. The text is also available on CPJ’s website at
http://www.cpj.org/pubs/attacks97/attacks97index,html
