2003, a black
year
Reporters
Without Borders.
6.01.2004.
2003
was a black year for press freedom. Forty-two
journalists were killed, mostly in Asia
and in the Middle East, because of the war
in Iraq. Every other indicator was also
up: arrests of journalists, physical attacks,
threats and censorship all increased alarmingly.
In
2003 :
42 journalists killed
at least 766 arrested
at least 1,460 physically attacked or threatened
at least 501 media censored
By
contrast with 2002 when :
25 journalists were killed
at least 692 arrested
at least 1,420 physically attacked or threatened
at least 389 media censored
At
1 January 2004,
124 journalists were in prison around the
world
61 cyberdissidents were in prison around
the world
General
Trends
Every
gauge of press freedom violations in 2003
stood at red alert. Although the number
of physical attacks and threats has remained
almost stable since last year, other press
freedom violations have increased dramatically
compared to 2002 and overall since 2001.
The
number of journalists killed (42) is the
highest since 1995 (49 journalists killed,
22 of them in Algeria). The massive military
deployment and the unprecedented scale of
media coverage of the war in Iraq have a
lot to do with it. But a more global and
particularly worrying fact emerges : covering
a war is becoming more and more dangerous
for journalists. Added to the traditional
dangers of war, are the unpredictable hazards
of bomb attacks, the use of more sophisticated
weapons - against which even the training
and protection of journalists is ineffective
- and belligerents who care more about winning
the war of images than respecting the safety
of media staff. So many factors increase
the risks of war reporting. As a result
of the violence of conflicts, but not only
because of that, the number of journalists
physically attacked and threatened has stabilised
at a very high level and slightly up on
2002.
Arrests
of journalists and censorship of media reached
a record high in 2003. The relentless growth
in violations of press freedom since 2001,
is, undoubtedly linked to the fight against
terrorism and to anti-terror laws adopted
by some countries since the 11 September
attacks. This new geo-political factor broke
the downward trend registered in 1999 and
2000.
Seat
of international tension and terrorist violence,
the Middle East is the worst case region
for press freedom this year. With the war
in Iraq and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, it is the Middle East that has
seen the largest number of journalists killed
(16) equal with Asia, which however has
a far larger population. The Arabic-language
press continues to groan under the weight
of repressive and sclerotic regimes (Saudi
Arabia, Syria) or sham democracies (Jordan,
Yemen, the Palestinian Authority), while
Lebanon, for so long a haven of media freedom,
is displaying an ever more worrying contempt
for the rule of law. In the Maghreb and
Iran, expressing an opinion or publishing
a cartoon can lead to prison.
In
Asia, the press is still beset by the same
ills : endemic violence (in Bangladesh),
large numbers of arrests (Nepal) and censorship
(China and Burma). Asia remains a continent
where it was outstandingly dangerous to
work as a journalist in 2003 (16 killed).
It is also the world's largest prison for
journalists, cyberdissidents and Internet-users.
In
Latin America, press freedom violations
remained relatively stable in contrast with
2002, with the notorious exception of Cuba
where the leading figures of the independent
press have been imprisoned. On the other
hand there has been a marked deterioration
in the press freedom situation in Central
Asia. The general trend on the African continent
has been a worsening of working conditions
for journalists, including in countries
until recently held up as good examples
such as Niger and Senegal. The deterioration
that has affected the local and international
press is linked to wars and civil conflicts,
but also the fossilisation of some authoritarian
regimes such as Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Finally,
things are satisfactory within the European
Union, with the notable exception of Italy,
where the conflicts of interest of Silvio
Berlusconi, both prime minister and owner
of a media empire, still poses a threat
to pluralism of news and information. In
most central and eastern European countries,
journalists have had to contend with harsh
and archaic defamation laws. Despite this,
the ten countries set to join the EU on
1 May 2004 have respected press freedom.
Things remain unstable in Serbia-Montenegro,
where censorship was slapped on after the
assassination of the prime minister, Zoran
Djindjic, and in Romania, where journalists
investigating corruption or criticising
the party in power encounter growing problems.
2003,
a deadly year for press freedom
The
Middle East was the deadliest part of the
world for journalists in 2003. Fourteen
journalists and media workers were killed
and about 15 injured covering the war and
the period after the war in Iraq. The US
military could be blamed for the death of
at least five journalists, but in no case
did they hold any investigation worthy of
the name. On the third day of the conflict
two journalists working for British ITN
television, French cameraman Frédéric
Nérac and a Lebanese interpreter
Hussain Othman, mysteriously disappeared.
In
total, six journalists disappeared in 2003
(in Iraq, Russia, India, Democratic Republic
of Congo and Mexico).
In
the occupied Palestinian territories, the
Israeli army killed two cameramen. To date
no action has been taken against those who
did the shooting, even if for the first
time, the Israeli army was forced to open
an investigation into the death of the British
documentary film-maker James Miller.
The
year 2003 was the most dangerous for journalists
in the Philippines since 1987. A total of
seven were killed after condemning corruption
and local criminal gangs. Two journalists
were killed in Nepal and Indonesia. Three
were murdered in India, among them the boss
of a local press agency killed in his Kashmir
office.
In
Iran, the Iranian-Canadian photographer
Zahra Kazemi was murdered in July. She was
arrested while working on a report on students
detained in the sinister Evin prison in
Teheran after major demonstrations in June.
Kazemi died while in detention. After initially
trying to cover up the case, the authorities
are now trying to obstruct the trial.
Two
journalists were killed in Côte d'Ivoire
this year. Both foreign and local journalists
have been working in very hazardous conditions
since the start of the civil war in September
2002. Many have been accused of being in
league with rebels and exposed to the wrath
of the mob by pro-government media. An Ivorian
journalist and a foreign journalist, Jean
Hélène, correspondent for
Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Abidjan,
were killed in 2003.
In
Colombia, torn by civil war for 40 years,
four journalists have been killed for condemning
corruption among deputies and even their
collusion with armed groups. With an average
of four journalists killed each year over
the past ten years, Colombia could be considered
one of the most dangerous places in the
world for journalists. This extreme state
of affairs can be explained by the fact
that killers of journalists enjoy total
impunity. In some regions in which armed
groups hold sway (Arauca, Nariño
and Santander departments), the people no
longer have access to any free and reliable
news.
More
and more journalists arrested
As
at 1 January 2004, there were at least 124
journalists in prison worldwide either for
their opinions or their work. This figure
has continued to rise since 2001 (489 journalists
arrested in 2001, 692 in 2002, 766 in 2003).
The countries that hold most journalists
in jail are Cuba (30), Burma (17), Eritrea
(14) and Iran (11).
In
Cuba, Fidel Castro took advantage of the
world's focus on events in Iraq to open
a new chapter of repression, jailing the
island's leading figures in the independent
press. In March, 27 journalists were arrested
in a roundup within the ranks of dissidents
then sentenced in Stalinist-type trials
to jail terms ranging from 14 to 27 years.
Among them were Ricardo González,
publisher of the magazine De Cuba and correspondent
for Reporters Without Borders and head of
Cuba Press, Raúl Rivero, sentenced
to 20 years imprisonment. These arrests
brought to 30 the number of journalists
in jail in Cuba.
Burma
has been for many years the Asian country
holding the largest number of journalists
in its jails (17) for writing in support
of democracy. A sports journalist who was
arrested in 2003 was condemned to death.
The UN special rapporteur for Burma spoke
out against the "hell" of Burmese
detention centres after visiting Insein
jail in Rangoon. In Nepal, the end of the
cease-fire in August triggered a new wave
of arrests of pro-Maoist journalists or
those suspected of being so. More than 40
of them were detained during 2003, often
in secret custody and ill treated by security
forces. Eritrea is the African continent's
biggest jail for journalists : fourteen
are still being held and no information
has been forthcoming about the place or
conditions of their detention. Only the
official press has been permitted to operate
since 2001.
In
Iran, where the court system is in the hands
of the conservatives, journalists are jailed
without restraint, particularly those working
in the very active reformist press. At least
50 were arrested, more than the previous
year. Most of them were tried in secret
and some spent several months in solitary
confinement. In Syria, in a move demonstrating
the problem of achieving reform, the correspondent
for the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper was
detained for several months for writing
about preparations for the war in Iraq.
This "preventive " detention was
seen as a warning to all Syrian journalists,
who are closely watched by the government.
A
journalist was jailed in Algeria for the
first time since 1995, although the sentence
was eventually commuted to a heavy fine.
Morocco jailed two journalists in 2003 setting
back press freedom in the country by several
years. The publisher Ali Lmrabet was sentenced
to three years in jail for his cartoons
and for an interview on the Western Sahara
that displeased King Mohammed VI. Another
journalist was jailed under anti-terror
legislation passed in 2003.
In
Russia, a journalist was sentenced to one
year of forced labour in a defamation case,
for the first time since the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991. The year 2003 was
particularly tough for journalists in Belarus,
where three were still serving prison sentences
with forced labour for having "insulted
the president". In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,
two journalists and human rights activists
were jailed and subjected to campaigns of
vilification by the authorities.
Despite
far-reaching reforms adopted in Turkey with
an eye to its bid for membership of the
European Union, in practice pro-Kurdish
journalists or those critical of the government
were still subjected to abusive legal action.
Fourteen were arrested during the year and
at least five are currently in prison for
expressing opinions in the course of their
work.
A
high level of physical attacks and threats
The
number of journalists physically attacked
and threatened remained stable compared
with 2002 but at a very high level.
In
Bangladesh things were as bad as ever. More
than 200 journalists were physically attacked
or received death threats from political
activists, religious extremists or local
criminal gangs. Complete inaction by the
authorities only served to consolidate the
endemic violence. In Afghanistan, two journalists
condemned to death by fatwa following the
publication of an article on secularism
had to flee abroad.
Journalists
were victims of repeated attacks and threats
in Haiti from supporters of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. The perpetrators were protected
by the government, which is often enough
the instigator of the violence itself. Nor
does impunity look like ending : the investigations
into the murder of Brignol Lindor (killed
on 3 December 2001) and that into the murder
of Jean Dominique (killed on 3 April 2000)
concluded this year without uncovering who
ordered the killings. Haitian journalists
continue to go into exile.
In
Venezuela, 93 physical attacks were recorded
against journalists, mainly during the end
of the big strike against President Hugo
Chávez, in January and February.
Most attacks were believed to be the work
of the president's supporters who viewed
the major media as anti-Chavez. The presidential
election campaign in Guatemala was marred
by many attacks against the press, most
of them linked to the controversial candidacy
of the former dictator Ríos Montt.
In Bolivia and to a lesser extent in Peru,
the press suffered from a climate of conflict.
Several media and journalists were threatened
or came under attack during a crackdown
on rioting that led to the departure of
Bolivian President Sánchez de Lozada.
Finally attacks on journalists continued
to increase alarmingly in Ukraine. They
remained very high in Russia with 18 such
incidents. Most of those targeted were journalists
working in the provinces who investigated
corruption in which local authorities were
implicated.
Censorship,
a going concern
The
year 2003 saw a strong increase in censorship
around the world. Once again it was in Asia
that the greatest number of media were gagged
In
China, the media landscape is evolving at
huge speed with the government closing indebted
newspapers and new press groups being founded.
But censorship is ever alert to sensitive
topics : dissidence, corruption, the SARS
and AIDS epidemics are among subjects on
which the authorities will only tolerate
official lies. Burma has the sorry privilege
of being one of the very few countries in
the world to practise advance censorship.
The military junta ratcheted up its control
of the media after the arrest of Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. No media
was able to refer to it, nor the banking
crisis that engulfed the country. In the
Pacific, the king of the Tonga islands distinguished
himself by banning the sole bi-weekly independent
Tami o' Tonga.
There
was an upsurge of censorship on the African
continent. Several countries resumed the
practice of seizing newspapers, banning
radios and other outlets. In Zimbabwe, the
Daily News, the country's sole independent
daily paper, was closed in mid-September.
The ageing regime of Robert Mugabe expelled
the last foreign correspondent in 2003,
leaving the country inaccessible to international
media.
In
Gabon, President Omar Bongo, who has been
in power since 1967, tightened his grip
on the independent press. The presidential
clan's systematic purchasing of independent
titles was going a long way towards creating
a monolithic Gabonese press. In Rwanda,
the only independent newspaper was seized
three times in 2003. There has been no private
press since 2001 in Eritrea where the authorities
are unmoved by pressure from the international
community. Finally, in Swaziland, journalists
are regularly suspended for criticising
the king and the government tightly controls
all news and information, public and private.
Censorship
is severe in Iran. The reformist press is
rapped when it raises subjects such as the
Kazemi case or the signing of the nuclear
protocol. Thirteen newspapers were suspended
for periods of up to five years by the judge
Saïd Mortazavi in Teheran, major censor
of the Iranian press. The authorities have
harassed independent newspapers in Algeria,
preventing them from appearing for several
weeks. As the April 2004 presidential election
campaign got off to a very early start,
the authorities had no hesitation in expelling
several correspondents from the French press
in the hope of preventing them from covering
the release of the historic leaders of the
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
In
the Middle East, a high level of censorship,
but also self-censorship, attended the coverage
of the war in Iraq. In Yemen, Syria and
Palestine, the capture of Saddam Hussein,
for example, was only very cautiously and
partially reported by the government press
agencies. In Syria, the sole independent
weekly satirical newspaper Addomari was
indefinitely suspended after months of administrative
harassment. Despite the appearance of debate
in the local press that would have been
unthinkable a few years earlier, Saudi Arabia
remains the kingdom of censorship. In Jordan,
government investment in the media and a
frequent close watch, at the printers, of
the content of newspapers gainsay official
statements supporting press freedom. In
Lebanon, where political and media interests
dovetail, the private television channel
New Television (NTV), known for its criticism
of the government, has had several of its
programmes banned.
In
Turkmenistan, the most repressive country
of the former Soviet Union, censorship is
total and the media's only job is to sing
the praises of President Niyazov. In Uzbekistan,
despite the abolition of official censorship
in 2001, the media can only cover permitted
subjects. During the war in Iraq, the authorities
pulled the plug on Russian television broadcasts
that were at odds with the country's pro-American
stance. In Belarus, the Alexander Lukashenko
regime suspended or prevented the appearance
of more than ten independent newspapers
and banned Russian NTV television from working
on its territory.
Many
regimes abuse the legitimate struggle against
terrorism to keep its press under close
supervision. This is particularly true in
Tunisia, where the independent press is
extremely tame and in Morocco where the
anti-terror law strictly limits political
coverage. In Iraq, the provisional government
has banned the satellite channel Al-Arabiya
from operating in the country, accusing
it of " incitement to violence "
by broadcasting sound recordings said to
have been of Saddam Hussein and armed Iraqi
groups fighting US troops. In Colombia,
the anti-terror law adopted in 2003 threatens
protection of sources. It empowers the judicial
police and the army to carry out phone tapping,
searches and to intercept mail without a
warrant. Since President Alvaro Uribe Velez
took power 2002, the government has become
a greater potential threat to the press.
In Spain, the struggle against the Basque
terrorist organisation ETA has eroded press
freedom. Closure of the Basque-language
newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria announced
as a temporary " preventive measure
", in fact lasted almost the whole
year.
Press
freedom as victim of conflict
The
war in Iraq was not the only conflict in
the world to put press freedom to a harsh
test.
Independent
coverage of the war in Chechnya became virtually
impossible for both Russian and foreign
reporters, because of obstacles thrown up
by the Russian Army and the risk of kidnapping.
A correspondent with Agence France-Presse
(AFP) was abducted in July.
Resumption
of hostilities in Liberia had serious repercussions
for press freedom : two journalists were
injured in gunfire and dozens of others
attacked or kidnapped. In the Côte
d'Ivoire, the lurking civil war triggered
many press freedom violations. There were
dozens of cases reported of journalists
arrested threatened or physically attacked.
In
Indonesia, two journalists have been killed
since the declaration of martial law in
Aceh, at least five others were arrested
and around 20 attacked or targeted in firing.
In this separatist province, the military
strictly controls information and the work
of journalists. Several foreign correspondents,
including American William Nessen were expelled
from Indonesia for having travelled to the
region. In the same way in Pakistan, two
journalists from the French magazine L'Express
were arrested for reporting in a border
province with Afghanistan. Their Pakistani
colleague is detained without trial.
In
Sudan, despite institutional reform, the
security forces control coverage of the
civil war. In 2003 they suspended numerous
titles including the English-language Khartoum
Monitor.
The
Internet under Surveillance
The
year saw several cyberdissidents released,
including a young Tunisian, Zouhair Yahyaoui,
who spent more than a year in jail for having
opened a satirical site taunting President
Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. The young Liu Di,
who took part in Chinese discussion forums
as " stainless steel mouse ",
was released after a year in solitary confinement.
Despite
these releases, China remains by far the
world's largest prison for Internet-users.
Six more cyberdissidents were jailed this
year bringing the total, at 1 January 2004,
48 Internet-users imprisoned because of
the dreaded efficiency of the Chinese cyber-police
(a staff of 30,000). Huang Qi, webmaster
of the site www.6-4tianwang.com, is still
being held in Sichuan's provincial prison.
He was arrested in June 2000, and he is
serving five years in harsh conditions for
having "attempted to overthrow the
power of the state". China has state
of the art technology to monitor the Internet
and track down cyberdissidents, technology
which is often provided by foreign companies,
such as Cisco System.
Vietnam
follows the example of its Chinese big brother.
Nine cyberdissidents are in jail there.
According to Reporters Without Borders'
sources the country has set up a computer
research department, exclusively devoted
to creating " made in Vietnam "
Net surveillance software.
Apart
from China and Vietnam, other countries
to be counted as among the most repressive
on the Internet are : The Maldives (3 cyberdissidents
imprisoned), Burma, North Korea, Cuba (references
to Internet activity appeared on the charge
sheet for most of the journalists who were
jailed at the end of March), Saudi Arabia,
Tunisia and several countries of the former
Soviet union, like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Reporters
Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists
and press freedom throughout the world,
as well as the right to inform the public
and to be informed, in accordance with Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Reporters Without borders has nine
national sections (in Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom), representatives
in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul,
Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington
and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.
©
Reporters Without Borders 2002
|