(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 28 May 2005 WAN press release: Seoul, Korea, 28 May 2005 Press Freedom Deteriorating World-Wide: WAN Freedom of expression, the safety of journalists and media development are under siege in most regions of the world, according to the World Association of Newspaper’s half-year review of press freedom world-wide. “The […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 28 May 2005 WAN press release:
Seoul, Korea, 28 May 2005
Press Freedom Deteriorating World-Wide: WAN
Freedom of expression, the safety of journalists and media development are under siege in most regions of the world, according to the World Association of Newspaper’s half-year review of press freedom world-wide.
“The press is simply muzzled in many countries. Attacks against journalists are common. Too many killers of journalists remain free. A total of 38 journalists have been killed since November 2004. Hundreds more have been arrested, assaulted and harassed,” said the report, delivered to the WAN Board, meeting in Seoul, Korea, on the eve of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, the global meetings of the world’s press.
In the past six months, the Philippines and Iraq were the most deadly places to be a journalist. Ten journalists were killed in Iraq and nine in the Philippines in the past six months.
“The suffocation of independent media continues unabated in countries throughout the world,” said the report. “The governments of Nepal, Cuba, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, China and Zimbabwe, to name only a few of the worst offenders, have refused to surrender their monopoly on information, finding more and more audacious mechanisms to maintain their vice-like grip on media,” the report said.
The report is available on the WAN web site at http://www.wan-press.org/article7247.html
Region by region, the report said:
– From setbacks in media laws in Venezuela, to the murder of journalists in four countries, and with 23 journalists still imprisoned in Cuba, Latin America has confronted a number of press freedom problems in the past six months. Impunity for the killers of journalists continues to reign throughout much of the region, although certain governments are taking decisive actions to address this continent-wide issue.
Journalists have been murdered in Brazil, Colombia, Haiti and Mexico.
– In the United States, press freedom is currently facing one of its most challenging periods in recent decades. In December, Jim Taricani, an investigative reporter with WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, was sentenced to six months under house arrest for refusing to reveal his sources. There are currently 30 cases where journalists have been ordered by courts to reveal their sources.
– Asia, with a few exceptions, is a region that is characterised by severe political repression, excessive restrictions on the media, and simmering ethnic and religious tension. Journalists have been killed in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand in the past six months.
In China, ongoing attacks on cyber-dissidents in the name of national security continue to land scores of journalists and human rights activists in prison with harsh sentences.
In Nepal, press freedom took a severe turn for the worse with the declaration of a state of emergency made on 1 February by King Gyanendra. Since then, the Nepalese media has faced an onslaught of pressure and terror.
In Burma, one of the world’s most notorious jailers of journalists, the situation has slightly improved following the amnesty in January of three journalists who had been imprisoned for several years. Nine journalists remain in prison however.
– In Central Asia, the governments of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan remain the worst predators of press freedom in the region. In Uzbekistan, international free expression and media organisations remain shuttered, and self-censorship is endemic in what remains of the country’s independent media. Turkmenistan remains completely isolated from the outside world; very few foreign media travel to the country, and there is no independent media.
– In Europe, Belarus continues to provide an extremely difficult environment for media under the dictatorial government of President Aleksandro Lukashenko. Closures and legal harassment of the country’s independent press continue, an example being the three-month suspension of Birzha Informatsii in December for “violating the media law” after writing articles that criticised the action of Mr Lukashenko in the run-up to the country’s October referendum.
In Russia, the apparent unwillingness of authorities to investigate a number of murders of journalists as well as physical attacks on journalists further tarnishes the country’s already poor press freedom record.
– The press freedom situation throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa is grim, as government control over the press remains rigid and in some countries appears to be getting worse. In those countries where journalists do enjoy a measure of freedom of expression, they must contend with harsh media laws, which often result in criminal prosecution, arrest and censorship.
Conservative forces in Iran continue to exert measures to stifle the country’s fledgling, yet vocal, independent press, and the pressure appears to have worsened in the past six months. Cyber dissidents and bloggers have emerged to fill the void left by the closure of traditional media outlets. Many of them are now under attack by the authorities.
Recent political events in Lebanon, including the withdrawal of Syria from the country, have opened the possibility to improvements in press freedom, although it is too soon to tell whether Syria’s actions could indicate a positive trend away from both countries’ conservative stance toward free expression.
– A patchwork of complex factors including civil conflict, autocratic press laws, lack of infrastructure, and totalitarian regimes characterises the press freedom situation in much of Africa.
The spiralling decline of press freedom in the tiny West African state of Gambia in the past six months is cause for serious concern. The country’s already beleaguered independent press suffered a serious blow with the 16 December murder of Deyda Hydara, founder and editor-in-chief of The Point newspaper. The introduction of two repressive press laws by President Jammah in February — one dealing with ownership, the other with defamation — was another deadly blow to independent media in the country.
Press freedom in Zimbabwe under President Mugabe’s regime further deteriorated in the past few months, particularly in connection to the March presidential elections, which saw the expulsion of the remaining foreign correspondents from the country and the elimination of the last independent media through licensing and security laws.
For more on what WAN does for press freedom development, go to http://www.wan-press.org/article37.html
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.
