VOA News. 30 Apr
2001 15:57 UTC
A major international group defending the rights of journalists has named 30
national and political leaders as posing a threat to the freedom of information
in the world.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres), described
the leaders as predators.
In a statement issued ahead of Thursday's commemoration of International
Press Freedom Day, the group says most of the leaders in question are
heads-of-state, but a few others lead rebel movements.
Among the world leaders named by Reporters Without Borders are China's Jiang
Zemin, North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Russia's Vladimir
Putin.
The group notes that 32 journalists were killed last year, four fewer than
in 1999. Four have been killed so far this year.
It says more than one third of the world's population now lives in countries
where there is no real press freedom.
In the Middle East, the group's list of so-called enemies of freedom of
expression includes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd,
Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. Also on the
list are Syria's new President Bashar Al-Assad, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei and the leader of Afghanistan's Taliban militia, Mohammad Omar
Akhunzadah.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Reporters Without Borders lists Angolan President
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, newly-installed Congolese President Joseph Kabila and
Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Other African leaders include Equatorial Guinea's
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Francois
Compaore, the brother of Burkina Faso's president.
In Asia, the group lists Burma's military leader General Than Shwe, Laotian
President Khamtai Siphandon and the recently-sacked general secretary of
Vietnam's Communist Party, Le Ka Phieu.
Mentioned as enemies of press freedom in Europe and the former Soviet Union
are the head of Turkey's armed forces, Huseyin Kivrikoglu, Belorussian President
Alexandr Lukashenko, Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, Turkemistan's Saparmurat
Niyazov and Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine.
The heads of three Columbia rebel groups, Manuel Maulanda of the Marxist
Revolutionary Armed Forces, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista of the National
Liberation Army and Carlos Castano of Autodefenses Unies, were also listed as
enemies of press freedom. Reporters Without Borders also names the Basque
separatist group ETA and Chechen-organized crime groups as so-called predators
against freedom of expression.
Some information for this report provided by AFP.
The World's
Worst Repressive Regimes (external link) | 