Rwanda The government of President Paul Kagame continued to suppress criticism and maintain a firm grip on the press in 2004. Although the 2003 elections were supposed to bring democracy to Rwanda, independent journalists continued to live in fear of harassment and imprisonment, and others were forced to flee after receiving death threats.
Senegal Senegal’s large and diverse press is one of the strongest in West Africa. The constitution guarantees press freedom, and dozens of privately owned newspapers and radio stations carry a wide variety of political views. Yet journalists can still be jailed for what they report, despite President Abdoulaye Wade’s 2000 campaign promise to decriminalize press…
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone has continued its efforts to rebuild after a brutal, decade-long civil war officially ended in January 2002. In May 2004, the West African country held its first local elections in more than 30 years. In June, a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal began trying senior government and rebel military leaders.
Somalia Journalists face violence and lawlessness in Somalia, which has had no effective central government since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. The self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the northwest, are relatively stable compared with the south, most of which remains in the…
South Africa South Africa’s diverse and sophisticated news media are rarely targets of violence, and journalists say they are largely free to move around the country and criticize authorities. But press freedom groups are concerned that new antiterrorism legislation will impede investigative reporting and compromise the independence of journalists.
Sudan Sudan garnered international headlines in 2004 due to widespread atrocities and ethnic cleansing in Darfur, an impoverished region in the west of the country. Since February 2003, government-backed militias, known as janjaweed, have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced close to 2 million in a counterinsurgency campaign against rebel groups.
ThailandPopulist Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s press freedom record has been less than stellar since he took office in 2001. His political and financial interference, legal intimidation, and coercion continued to have a chilling effect on critical voices in the Thai press in 2004.
Togo With 37 years in power, Togolese president Gnassingbé Eyadéma is Africa’s longest-serving head of state. Even after multiparty elections were introduced in 1993, Eyadéma and his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais have dominated politics and muzzled opposition voices in this West African nation. However, the Eyadéma regime surprised the international community in April by…
TongaThe Tongan media won a great victory in 2004, when the Supreme Court in the capital, Nuku’alofa, reversed legislation aimed at stifling the nation’s independent press. The decision brought the New Zealand–based, Tongan-language newspaper Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), known for its independent coverage, back to the newsstands after an absence of several months.
Zimbabwe CPJ named Zimbabwe one of the “World’s Worst Places to Be a Journalist” in 2004, with the government of President Robert Mugabe continuing to crack down on the private media. Repressive legislation was used to close the country’s only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, and to detain and harass journalists. Authorities were particularly…