Australia

Iraqi journalists frequently face hazardous conditions on the job.
By Joel Campagna and Hani Sabra

Borrowing a page from the U.S. playbook, the Indonesian military is restricting and controlling coverage of their war in the restive province of Aceh.

Journalists in Jakarta estimate that 1,000 new publications have sprung up throughout the country since Suharto was forced from office a year ago. While some of them are supported by one or another of the 48 political parties vying in the June 7 elections, many others profess independence and seek readers rather than partisan victories. Where once a single official journalists' union, the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), held sway over the entire profession by official decree, some two dozen new press associations have formed in the past year. The Ministry of Information, which used to be the chief gatekeeper and stumbling block to anyone seeking to open a newspaper or magazine, now processes license applications in a matter of hours and aims to do away with official registration altogether.