2006

Preface By Paul E.Steiger Introduction By Ann Cooper AFRICA ANALYSIS Lessons in Democracy and the Press By Julia CrawfordVersion française  AMERICAS ANALYSIS All the News That Can’t Be Printed By Carlos Lauría  Versión en español ASIA ANALYSIS As Radio Grows More Powerful, Challenges EmergeBy Abi Wright EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA ANALYSIS: Free Expression Takes a…

New York, February 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Mexican press reports of a plot by Mexican businessmen and state officials to imprison and assault journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro. Tapes of telephone conversations between several people, two of whom are said by the media to be the governor…

January 11: A killing in Colombia reinforces self-censorship — Gunmen kill radio news host Julio Hernando Palacios Sánchez as he drives to work in Cúcuta. Attacked from all sides, the Colombian press censors itself to an extraordinary degree, CPJ later reports. Probing journalists are killed, detained, or forced to flee. Verified news is suppressed, and…

By Paul E. SteigerFor 24 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has remained steadfast in its mission to defend the press around the world. But in 2005, that mission meant paying unusual attention to what was happening at home.

AFGHANISTAN: 1 Ali Mohaqqiq Nasab, Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights) Imprisoned: October 1, 2005 The attorney general ordered editor Nasab’s arrest on blasphemy charges after the religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, Mohaiuddin Baluch, filed a complaint about his magazine. “I took the two magazines and spoke to the Supreme Court chief, who wrote to the attorney…

By Ann CooperOn May 2, when the Committee to Protect Journalists identified the Philippines as the world’s most murderous country for journalists, the reaction was swift. “Exaggerated,” huffed presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who was practiced at dismissing the mounting evidence. He had called an earlier CPJ analysis of the dangers to Philippine journalists “grossly misplaced…

All the News That Can’t Be PrintedBy Carlos LauríaGood investigative reporters know more than they can write. The problem in some Latin American countries is that good reporters are barely writing anything. From Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border, journalists are looking over their shoulders before sitting down at their computers or going on the air.…

Attacks and developments throughout the region

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…

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…