World Press Freedom Day

In its annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, the organisation concluded that even as the Arab Spring triggered unprecedented progress, it also provoked a backlash, repercussion of which have been felt across the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa.

According to the records, most of the aggressions were initiated by public officials; 18.59% of these by the President.

Of the 103 journalists killed in 2011 because of their work, 36 lost their lives in Latin America, confirming a trend of increasing violence against journalists in the Western hemisphere that IPI and other international groups have sought to address for some years.

According to the organisation’s annual report, 64 journalists and other media workers were killed world-wide because of their professional activities in 2011, with nearly half of them killed in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

Decriminalization is urgent in Peru, where a promising reform of the criminal code approved in July 2011 has not yet been enacted.

IFJ blames governments’ failure to uphold their international obligations for the ongoing violence targeting media.

IAPA concluded that this was one of the most “challenging and tragic” years for the countries of the Americas and reaffirmed its commitment to confront the next challenges.

In “‘Friends’ of the West, enemies of press freedom”, IPI highlights the press freedom situations in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Hungary.

The Arab Spring and protests in other countries were responsible for a dramatic surge in the number of arrests, from 535 in 2010 to 1,044 in 2011.

Political conflict and unrest proved deadly for journalists in 2011, while governments failed to prosecute those who targeted reporters for their work.

In new report, CIHRS hails the courageous work of human rights defenders in the region who were locomotives for change in 2011.

Iran, Eritrea and China are among the leading jailers, according to CPJ’s annual census; nearly half of those held were online journalists, while about 45 percent of the imprisoned were freelancers.

In its report, RSF examines the methods used by the authorities to strangle the flow of information during popular uprisings in six countries – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.

“Impunity is a particularly difficult evil to counter because it is self-reinforcing,” says the report.

WAJA stands in solidarity with fallen colleagues in the region and victims of threats, harassment and legal intimidation in Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

London-based photographers staged a Flashmob outside City Hall to denounce arbitrary restrictions on their work in a city where the banning of photography in many public spaces is enforced by private security guards.