(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release: Vienna, 19 March 2003 IPI Criticises Countries Included in the “Coalition of the Willing” The International Press Institute (IPI) condemns the inclusion of countries deeply prejudicial to press freedom in the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” for the impending war against Iraq. According to media reports, […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release:
Vienna, 19 March 2003
IPI Criticises Countries Included in the “Coalition of the Willing”
The International Press Institute (IPI) condemns the inclusion of countries deeply prejudicial to press freedom in the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” for the impending war against Iraq.
According to media reports, State Department officials have identified 30 countries that have lent their support to the war in Iraq – a so-called “coalition of the willing” whose sole criterion for inclusion was that the country wanted to be publicly associated with the idea that Iraq is immediately disarmed.
The list includes: Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Britain and Uzbekistan.
Based on the comments of State Department officials, an additional 15 countries, while willing to lend their support to the conflict, wished to remain anonymous.
Commenting on the list, Johann P. Fritz, Director of IPI, said, “This is more a list of the ‘coalition of the sinning’ rather than of ‘the willing’. It contains many governments that have done their utmost to suppress and stifle the independent media in their countries. They should not even be mentioned in the same breath as the other democratic countries named on the same list who continue to espouse the principles of a free press.
“Moreover, at a time when the United States and Great Britain are promising to introduce democracy to post-war Iraq, it is troubling to see them aligned with so many authoritarian states.”
Speaking of Eritrea and Ethiopia, Fritz said, “IPI’s World Press Freedom Review 2002 shows that both countries are ruled by totalitarian governments who care little for human rights in general and press freedom in particular. Last year, Eritrea rounded up 14 independent journalists who were simply whisked off the streets and incarcerated in appalling conditions, effectively closing down the country’s independent media; while in Ethiopia, the government’s promise to promote an independent media has been rendered meaningless by its arrest and detention of any journalists brave enough to speak out.”
On Azerbaijan’s approach to the media, “the working conditions in this country are nothing short of alarming. It is all too common for journalists to face violence, arbitrary arrest and the political control of the courts. Any attempt at political debate has been viciously stamped out,” Fritz continued.
Elsewhere, Fritz pointed to the murder of 15 journalists in Colombia, making it the most dangerous country in the world and the violent attacks on journalists in Georgia and Uzbekistan. “For the media in these countries, the high costs far outweigh the benefits of practicing journalism. The Georgian and Uzbekistan governments, in particular, seem unconcerned by the violence shown to journalists.”
Regarding the wider implications of such an alliance, Fritz said, “This coalition appears similar to that created in the War against Terrorism. By lining up with such countries, the United States and Great Britain are not only damaging their own human rights records but also explicitly condoning the actions of these countries. It is extremely damaging for democratic countries to be seen acting in concert with repressive regimes and it will only serve to create the impression that Western countries are prepared to jettison human rights when it is expedient to do so.”
