A Rough Time for Press Freedom

The picture painted by this latest report of the state of world-wide press freedoms is a sad one. It is of increasing numbers physical attacks on journalists, the passing of repressive laws that stifle the exchange of information or the targeted destruction of press equipment itself.

"On every continent, this basic right was harshly attacked, along with those who exercised it," the Paris-based group said in its annual report.

The Numbers Don’t Look Good

According to the report, in almost all categories for 2001, attacks on press freedom were more frequent that the year previous. Arrests skyrocketed up 50% (to 489), threats and attacks jumped 40% (to 716) and incidents of censorship (278) showed an increase of 28%. And, after four years of steady decline, the number of journalists in prison increased last year by almost half, from 74 in 2000 to 110 in 2001.

Only the numbers of journalists known killed in the line of duty in 2001 went down, but just by one, to 31. This year has already seen 8 journalists lose their lives, even though the actual numbers could actually be much higher than that, "Reporters Without Borders" told DW-WORLD.

A full one-third of the world’s people still live in countries where press freedom is not allowed, with China being the biggest offender.

Post September 11th

The attacks on the United States have had a chilling effect on press freedoms in North America. In Canada and the United States, steps have been taken to strengthen monitoring of the Internet and weaken the rights of journalists not to reveal their sources.

"In the war against what it calls ‘the evil-doers,’ the Bush administration is little bothered by the means that are used," the report says. "The news media are pressed to take sides and propaganda takes precedence over truth."

Worst Places to Be

The ignoble honor of being the worse place to be a journalist went this year to the West Bank. The designation was handed by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which annually ranks the ten places where dangers and restrictions represent the worst threats to press freedom.

CPJ is highly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government for using excessive force to keep journalists from covering its recent military incursions in the Palestinian Territories.

The ranking came out just Israeli forces are holding three journalists in detention and ignoring demands for their release.

Deadliest Beats

Running a close second was Columbia, where CPJ said violence against press by all parties in the country’s civil conflict had made it the Western Hemisphere’s most deadly beat.

Afghanistan took the bronze. Eight journalists lost their lives in the line of duty in late 2001. CPJ said the US government has also hindered independent reporting of the war there.

The ranking was rounded out by Eritrea, Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Cuba.

CPJ executive director Ann Cooper underlined the dangers of these places by saying that Pakistan, where Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (photo) was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year, did not even make the list. She told Reuters she could expand her list to 20 places easily.

"Incredibly, in many of these places, journalists still manage to report the news—even under extremely difficult circumstances and at great personal risk," she said.

Europeans Not Doing That Well

"Reporters with Borders" says even within the European Union things have taken a downturn. Despite the EU’s good record on human rights and freedom of expression, several countries saw threats to pluralism and freedom of information loom large.

Italy is the most visible and worrying example, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (photo) controls the majority of the country’s TV and radio stations and cracked down hard on anti-globalization demonstrations in Genoa where at least 19 journalists were injured.

Murders by groups in Spain and Northern Ireland, the narrowing of media ownership and political interference in Austria, and other questionable developments in France and Germany showed, according to RWB, "the Old Continent was getting dragged down a disquieting path."

The Good News

Despite the doom and gloom, there were a few bright spots, notably in Serbia, where new freedom of information went hand in hand with the fall from power of Slobodan Milosevich in October 2000. Peru and Chile eased up on their strict security laws and secret police methods, and early signs from the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan are good.

UNESCO awards a prize every year on this day to recognize an individual or institution on the front lines of press freedom. This year the honor has gone to Geoffrey Nyarota, editor-in-chief of Zimbabwe’s only independent newspaper, The Daily News.

Despite numerous death threats, bomb attacks on his newspaper, arrests and detentions, and four libel suits pending against him, Nyarota has continued to denounce corruption and criminal activities among top government officials in Zimbabwe.

"I started off wanting to write about cars, not politics," Nyarota said in an interview. But his own journalistic path changed when he saw the direction Zimbabwe’s political leaders where taking the country and how they repeatedly tried to quash any voices of dissent.

"To limit the population’s access to information only from the government network is in direct contravention of democratic principles," he said.