2012

  
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, buoyed by a landslide election victory, has led an attack on press freedom. (AP/Boris Grdanoski)

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Turkey’s Legal Problem

With the aid of anachronistic legislation and a rigid judiciary, Turkish officials and politicians have curbed free expression by subjecting journalists to endless court proceedings and legal costs. The EU and the U.S. are no help. By Robert Mahoney >> Türkçe

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Iran’s Vast Diaspora

Journalists who have fled Iran to avoid prison face a tense and lengthy process toward resettlement, an uncertain financial and professional future, and most of all, fear that the Iranian government will catch up with them. By María Salazar-Ferro and Sheryl A. Mendez >> فارسي

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: From Iran Into Exile

This video companion to Attacks on the Press recounts the story of Iranian journalist Javad Moghimi Parsa. Time magazine published one of the photos he took during his off-duty coverage of the unrest that came after the 2009 elections. Called a spy, he fled into exile. (2:47) Read the Attacks on the Press 2011 country…

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: The Year in Photos

Photographers from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and other news outlets documented historic events in 2011, often at great peril. The Year in Photographs: Press Freedom in 2011 features images from the Arab uprisings, South Asia’s armed conflicts, and political repression in the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Journalists In Prison

Iran is the world’s worst jailer of the press. Detentions rise in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Journalists Killed

Murders decline, but fatalities rise during coverage of protests. Photographers and freelancers pay an especially high price. Pakistan is the world’s most dangerous nation.

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Bahrain

The government waged a brutal multifaceted crackdown against independent news media covering the country’s months-long protest movement. Security forces subjected journalists to assaults, expulsions, detentions, politicized trials, prison terms, and lethal mistreatment in custody. Both international and local reporters were targeted: A journalist for the U.S. broadcaster ABC was beaten and his camera was confiscated…

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Reporter’s Death Puts Focus on Difficulties of Covering a Secretive Syria

In search of the truth in Syria, foreign correspondents face unprecedented restrictions and are often left with choice of sneaking into the country using dangerous overland smuggling routes, or not going at all. Violence in the country has already claimed 4 journalists, and the difficult journey itself led to the death of Anthony Shadid, who…

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Eritrea

No independent press has operated in this Red Sea nation since a September 2001 government crackdown on dissent that led to the imprisonment of 11 leading journalists without charge or trial and the enforced closure of their publications. President Isaias Afewerki’s administration consistently refused to account for the whereabouts, legal status, or health of the…

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Uzbekistan

Authoritarian leader Islam Karimov marked Media Workers Day by calling for an independent domestic press, the state news agency UzA reported, but his long-standing policies of repression belied such statements. The regime is a persistent jailer of journalists, often ranking among the worst in the region. Embattled reporter Abdumalik Boboyev faced official obstruction when he…

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