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In North Korea, listening to a foreign broadcast is a crime punishable
by death.
- In
Colombia, right-wing paramilitary forces are suspected in the murders
of three journalists in 2000. Meanwhile, paramilitary leader Carlos
Castaño was formally charged with the 1999 murder of political satirist
Jaime Garzón.
- Given
Liberian president Charles Taylor's history of brutality, local journalists
were duly alarmed when Taylor threatened to become "ferocious with the
New Democrat" after the newspaper questioned the sudden death of the
country's vice-president. In September, the newspaper's entire staff
fled the country.
- Cuba,
where state control of the media is enshrined in the constitution, was
the only country in the Americas holding journalists in jail at the
end of 2000. One of Cuba's three imprisoned journalists, CPJ International
Press Freedom Award winner Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, was released on
January 17, 2001. Another journalist was jailed and released on trumped-up
charges of "hoarding toys."
- Zimbabwean
soldiers stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo detained a television
crew and forced its members to roll around in the dust while singing
military anthems. In Côte D'Ivoire, seven journalists were detained
at a military base and forced to crawl, sing pro-junta anthems, and
do push-ups.
- In
northern Nigeria, fundamentalists seek to impose a version of Islamic
law (sharia) under which reporters guilty of publishing "offensive material"
could receive 60 strokes from a cane. One case is currently being tried.
- In
Burma, 77-year-old lawyer Cheng Poh was sentenced to 14 years in prison
for allegedly circulating photocopies of foreign news articles.
- Two
journalists were murdered in the Philippines in 2000, bringing to 34
the total number of journalists killed since democracy was restored
there in 1986.
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The Jordan Times complained that "water officials on Saturday said
only the minister, who was in Libya on Saturday, could tell the press
how much rain fell on Jordan last week."
- Saddam
Hussein's son Uday controls a vast media empire in Iraq, where there
is no independent press. In April, the National Press Union, which Uday
heads, named him "journalist of the century" for his "innovative role,
his efficient contribution in the service of Iraq's media family...and
his defense of honest and committed speech."
- Turkish
journalist Nadire Mater was acquitted on charges of insulting the military
in her book of interviews with former conscripts who had fought against
Kurdish separatists. "Banning the truth does not eradicate it," Mater
said.
- On
November 4, Bulgarian justice minister Teodossyi Simeonov punched Aleksandr
Mihaylov, an 18-year old photographer for the newspaper Sega,
claiming he was defending his constitutional right not be photographed.
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In two Central Asian countries, governments restricted access to the
Internet. Turkmenistan's president for life shut down all the country's
private Internet Service Providers last year. In Kazakhstan, the government
blocked access to an independent Web site for "technical reasons."
- In
Azerbaijan, editor Rauf Arifoglu was arrested and accused of hijacking
after he reported that one had occurred. Arifoglu was released after
six weeks in jail but is still facing charges.
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