In the Crosshairs, Journalists Face New Threat By Joel Campagna The bomb that ripped through Samir Qassir’s white Alfa Romeo on June 2, 2005, silenced Lebanon’s most fearless journalist. For years, Qassir’s outspoken columns in the daily Al-Nahar took on the Syrian government and its Lebanese allies when few reporters dared do so. The assassination sent shockwaves…
AFGHANISTAN The number of news outlets grew yet again, continuing an expansion of the media that began with the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001. With journalism’s higher profile, however, came increases in threats, attacks, and detentions targeting the press. These cases had a chilling effect on the news media, leading to greater…
ALGERIA Authorities continued to use legal harassment as the primary means of intimidating the private press, wielding a penal code that criminalizes defaming the president, the judiciary, Parliament, and the military. Emboldened by his re-election in 2004, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, together with his political and business allies, registered hundreds of legal complaints against private newspapers…
ARGENTINA The Argentine press continued to work freely and largely without fear of physical attacks. But several provincial administrations and the national government have manipulated the allocation of state advertising to punish critical reporting and reward supportive media. Two new studies determined that the politically based distribution of government advertising undermines the free press in…
AZERBAIJAN The murder of a prominent editor, detentions of other journalists, police abuses, and bureaucratic obstruction curtailed independent reporting in the run-up to a November 6 parliamentary election that saw President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and its allies sweep to victory. International observers said the vote was neither fair nor free, citing improper…
BANGLADESH Bangladesh was mired in a political crisis heightened by the wide-scale August 17 attacks by Islamic militants involving hundreds of small, near-simultaneous bombings throughout the nation. Journalists covering the bombings and their aftermath said they were more vulnerable than ever to violent reprisals. Bangladesh was already one of the most dangerous countries for the…
BELARUS Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko continued a systematic crackdown on independent media and nongovernmental organizations, further tightening control over domestic news ahead of the 2006 presidential election. Lukashenko consolidated internal power after a rigged October 2004 parliamentary election and accompanying referendum that eliminated presidential term limits, but he was still left looking nervously over his…
BRAZIL Brazil’s constitution guarantees free expression and prohibits censorship. But in practice, the news media are impeded by defamation lawsuits so common they’re known as the “industry of compensation” and by lower court judges who routinely interpret Brazilian law in ways that restrict press freedom. Authorities won important convictions in the recent murders of two…