World Press
Freedom in 2005
Violence Still
Increasing: 63 Journalists Killed, More Than 1,300 Physically Attacked or
Threatened
BY Reporters Without Borders
Posted by Bulatlat
In 2005:
-
63 journalists and 5 media assistants were
killed
-
at least 807 journalists were arrested
-
1,308 physically attacked or threatened
-
and 1,006 media outlets censored
On 1 January
2006, 126 journalists and 70 cyber-dissidents were in jail around the
world
In 2004:
-
53 journalists and 15 media assistants
were killed
-
at least 907 journalists were arrested
-
at least 1,146 physically attacked or
threatened
-
and 622 media outlets censored
The
deadliest year for a decade
At last 63
journalists were killed in 2005 while doing their job or for expressing
their opinions, the highest annual toll since 1995 (when 64 were killed,
22 of them in Algeria). Five media assistants (fixers, drivers,
translators, technicians, security staff and others) were also killed.
For the third
year running, Iraq was the world's most dangerous country for the media,
with 24 journalists and 5 media assistants killed. 76 journalists and
media assistants have been killed there since the start of fighting in
March 2003, more than in the 1955-75 Vietnam War. Terrorist strikes and
Iraqi guerrilla attacks were the main cause but the US army killed three
of them. Iraqi TV producer Wael al-Bakri, 30, was shot dead by US troops
on 28 June. A US Third Infantry Division spokesman admitted the next day
in Baghdad that a US unit was involved in his death and said an enquiry
had been opened. No result has been announced, nor in the other
investigated killings.
In the
Philippines too, journalists were killed while trying to inform the
public. Their enemies were no longer armed groups but politicians,
businessmen and drug-traffickers ready to silence journalists who exposed
their crimes. Despite the conviction during the year of the killer of
journalist Edgar Damalerio, murdered in 2002 on the island
of Mindanao, impunity remained the
rule. Journalists in other Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) were also killed because of their work.
Physical
attacks on politicians and journalists rocked Lebanon during the year and
two leading journalists were killed - Samir Kassir (in June) and Gebran
Tueni (December). Kassir was a columnist for the daily An-Nahar and Tueni
was the paper's publisher. May Chidiac, a well-known TV presenter with
the station LBC, survived a bomb attack on her car in September but lost a
hand and a leg.
Violence against journalists also increased in Africa, with journalists
murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Somalia and
their killers (some of them known) going unpunished. The investigation of
the December 2004 murder of Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, the local
correspondent of Agence France-Presse and Reporters Without Borders, made
no progress because the authorities did all they could to prevent those
responsible from being identified and to ensure they escaped punishment.
In the Americas, two journalists were killed in Mexico for investigating
drug smuggling and petrol racketeering.
Several
journalists were murdered in Russia and Belarus in shady circumstances and
some apparently because of their work. Official investigations there,
often biased and politically-influenced, hardly ever produce results.
Physical
attacks and threats keep on growing
More than
1,300 physical attacks and threats were recorded by Reporters Without
Borders during the year - more than in the previous one.
These occurred almost daily in Bangladesh and Nepal and came from all
sides - police, government or opposition party activists and members of
armed groups. The attackers are very rarely punished and can thus
continue to target journalists undeterred.
Journalist Manjur Morshed was seriously injured when he was badly beaten
with a bamboo stick in the southern Bangladeshi town of Baufal in August
by a pro-government MP he had accused of corruption. Local journalists
demonstrated in protest against the attack.
Election
campaigns often bring violence against the media and national votes in
Egypt and Azerbaijan saw dozens of physical attacks on journalists
reporting on demonstrations and the actual voting.
About 50 journalists were beaten up by police, soldiers or henchmen of
local politicians in Nigeria
and Peru and accused of not minding their own business. Such violence was
worse in the provinces and the journalists were mostly punched or hit with
sticks.
Other people attack journalists too and the Peruvian ambassador to Spain,
during a trip home to Lima in April, physically attacked a radio
journalist who wanted to interview him. The right arm of the reporter,
Bettina Mendoza, of the station CPN, was injured. The diplomat later
apologized.
Prisons
still full of journalists
JOURNALISTS
IN JAIL
CHINA:
32
CUBA: 24
ETHIOPIA: 17
ERITREA: 13
BURMA: 5
The same countries are still the world's biggest prisons for journalists,
whose detention there gets ever longer. On 1 January 2006, 126 journalists
and 3 media assistants were being held in 23 countries (for the complete
list, see www.rsf.org).
In China, journalist and art critic Yu Dongyue has been in prison since
the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, serving an 18-year sentence for
"counter-revolutionary propaganda." He has gone mad as a result of
torture.
Cuba is still the world's second-biggest prison for journalists and 20 of
the 27 journalists arrested in the spring 2003 crackdown are serving
sentences of between 14 and 27 years. Four others were jailed in summer
2005 and two of them have still to be tried.
In Burma, the country's best-known journalist/democrat, Win Tin, entered
his 17th year in prison. The ruling generals stubbornly refused to
release the 75-year-old former editor of the newspaper Hanthawathi.
Libyan writer Abdullah Ali al-Sanussi al-Darrat is the journalist who has
been in prison the longest of anyone He was arrested in 1973, very little
is known about him and Libyan officials have never answered repeated
requests for information by Reporters Without Borders. It is not known
whether he is still alive.
The privately-owned press was abolished in Eritrea in autumn 2001 and its
former editors and publishers are still in prison. A hunger strike by
them in 2002 had no effect. Their place of detention remains unknown and
their families are still not allowed to visit them.
The only figure that has fallen in the past year is the number of
journalists arrested (807 compared with 907 in 2004). But this is not
good enough, because every day an average of two journalists are arrested
somewhere in the world just for trying to do their job.
Cases of
censorship up by more than half
At least
1,006 cases of censorship were recording in 2005 (622 the previous year).
The big rise was mostly due to the much worse situation in Nepal, where
more than half (567) of all cases worldwide were recorded. Since the
state of emergency declared by King Gyanendra on 1 February, the media has
receiving a battering which is getting harsher. This has included a ban
on FM radio stations broadcasting news, blocking of websites, seizure of
equipment and politically-inspired distribution of government advertising.
In China, the "broadcasting Great Wall" had new victims, with Voice of
Tibet, the BBC, Sound of Hope and Radio Free Asia among the radio stations
jammed by the regime with equipment from the French firm Thalès. Media
and website editors and publishers get an almost daily list from the
government's propaganda department of topics to avoid.
Censorship
continues to rule in Belarus, Kazakhstan and most of
Central Asia
and newspapers there are still shut down just for criticising the
government. Printers and distributors are often used to exert pressure on
independent or opposition publications.
The
Internet under surveillance
CYBER-DISSIDENTS IN PRISON
CHINA: 62
VIETNAM: 3
IRAN: 1
SYRIA: 1
The Internet is still tightly controlled by some repressive governments
and Reporters Without Borders has drawn up a list of 15 "enemies of the
Internet" (Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, the Maldives, Nepal,
North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam).
These are the
harshest towards online freedom of expression and censor independent news
websites and opposition publications, spy on Internet traffic to silence
dissident voices and harass, threaten and sometimes throw in prison
Internet users and bloggers who deviate from the government line.
In Tunisia,
for example, the family of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali controls
national access to the Internet and he has built up very effective
censorship, with the websites of all opposition publications and many news
sites blocked. The regime also dissuades people from using webmail, which
is harder to monitor than standard e-mail such as Outlook. The Reporters
Without Borders website also cannot be seen inside Tunisia. The
authorities imprison Internet users who defy them and pro-democracy lawyer
Mohammed Abbou was given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence in April
2005 for criticizing the president online.
The
information ministry in Iran boasts that it blocks access to hundreds of
thousands of websites. The ruling ayatollahs target any kind of sexual
content and also independent news sites. Iran has the grim distinction of
having arrested and jailed the most bloggers - a score of them were thrown
in prison between autumn 2004 and summer 2005. Mojtaba Saminejad, a
23-year-old blogger, has been in jail since February 2005. He was given a
two-year sentence in June for insulting the country's Supreme Guide.
Posted by Bulatlat
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