While the government of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday pressured journalists to cover only the positive aspects of national life, several violent incidents highlighted the adversarial relationship between officialdom and the press. The Panday government established the National Broadcasting Network (NBN), which unites various state-owned television and radio stations into a single corporate entity. Panday urged…
In a year that saw strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali reelected in October with 99.42 percent of the vote, the press remained in the stranglehold of the Tunisian police state. For the second year in a row, CPJ named President Ben Ali one of the world’s top 10 enemies of the press. Since ousting “president…
For years, Turkey has had one of the liveliest yet most restricted presses in the region. This paradox was again on display in 1999. Print and broadcast media continued to cover sensitive social and political topics and were often unbridled in their criticism of the government–notably during the authorities’ sloppy rescue efforts after the devastating…
Among all the countries of the former Soviet Union, Turkmenistan stands out as having the most repressive climate for journalists. President Saparmurat Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashi, “father of all Turkmen people,” has created a personality cult not seen since the days of Stalin. In the capital, Ashgabat, a huge statue of Niyazov dominates the city…
President Yoweri Museveni and his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) made it clear that criticism would not be tolerated in the run-up to a referendum on the Ugandan political system scheduled for June 2000. Using harassment and discriminatory legislation, the NRM government managed to suppress most independent political activity, including meetings and public rallies. This…
Over the past several years, Ukrainian press freedom has deteriorated to such an extent that Ukraine, unlike even neighboring Belarus, now lacks any genuinely independent major news media. From a barrage of violent assaults in 1996Ð97 to relentless bureaucratic pressures and lawsuits aimed at bankrupting them, media outlets have been forced into the arms of…
Since its founding in 1981, CPJ has, as a matter of strategy and policy, concentrated on press freedom violations and attacks on journalists outside the United States. CPJ aims to devote its efforts to those countries where journalists are most in need of international support and protection. As a result, we do not systematically monitor…
Journalists reported no serious incidents preventing them from covering the news, but the inequitable distribution of state advertising threatened to dampen a vigorous press. Mocaltate Agencies–the largest advertisers in Uruguay–have been accused by journalists of depriving critical media outlets of government advertising while bestowing favors on sympathetic publications. Journalists report that while the practice has…
A series of February bomb explosions in Tashkent that killed 16 people and injured more than 100 prompted Uzbek authorities to crack down on press freedom and other civil liberties, already nearly nonexistent in one of the most repressive countries of the former Soviet Union. Uzbek authorities claimed that the bomb attacks marked an attempt…
President Hugo Chávez Frías, who took office in February in a landslide victory, excoriated the press for criticizing his plan to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution. Voters ratified the constitution in December by an overwhelming margin; journalists worry that an amendment guaranteeing the public’s “right to timely, truthful, and impartial information” could be used as justification to…