New York, March 21, 2001 — CPJ welcomes last week’s release of Krishna Sen, editor of the leftist Nepali-language weekly Janadesh. Sen had been imprisoned for nearly two years on charges that were never proven in court. Nepalese authorities twice flouted Supreme Court orders for his release by secretly transferring him to a different jail…
EIGHTY-ONE JOURNALISTS WERE IN PRISON AROUND THE WORLD at the end of 2000, jailed for practicing their profession. The number is down slightly from the previous year, when 87 were in jail, and represents a significant decline from 1998, when 118 journalists were imprisoned. While jailing journalists can be an effective means of stifling bad…
By Peter ArnettSHE STOOD DEFIANTLY IN THE CRAMPED QUARTERS OF ISTANBUL’S BEYOGLU CRIMINAL COURT at high noon of a hot midsummer day. The slight, dark-haired Nadire Mater had a message for the court and for the two dozen Turkish reporters and photographers who had gathered to hear her. “The truth is plain to see. Banning…
By Ann CooperIN THE COMMUNITY OF JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE CHRONICLED the past decade’s worst wars, the news last May was devastating. Two of the world’s most dedicated war correspondents, Kurt Schork of Reuters and Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora of The Associated Press, were killed in a rebel ambush in Sierra Leone, a country where…
DESPITE PRESS FREEDOM ADVANCES ACROSS ASIA IN RECENT YEARS, totalitarian regimes in Burma, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos maintained their stranglehold on the media. Even democratic Asian governments sometimes used authoritarian tactics to control the press, particularly when faced with internal conflict. Sri Lanka, for instance, imposed harsh censorship regulations during the year in…
In North Korea, listening to a foreign broadcast is a crime punishable by death. In Colombia, right-wing paramilitary forces are suspected in the murders of three journalists in 2000. Meanwhile, paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño was formally charged with the 1999 murder of political satirist Jaime Garzón.
FACING ROUTINE THREATS, HARASSMENT, AND OTHER ATTACKS, Bangladeshi journalists continued to work at great risk as political and criminal violence went unchecked. Two journalists were assassinated: Mir Illias Hossain, editor of the newspaper Dainik Bir Darpan, and Shamsur Rahman, a senior correspondent for the national daily Janakantha and a frequent contributor to the BBC’s Bengali-language…
CONDITIONS FOR JOURNALISTS IN BURMA ARE AMONG THE WORST in the world and showed no sign of improvement in 2000. All media outlets are either owned or controlled by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, the military junta that has governed the country since 1988. The handful of private journals allowed to publish face…
WHILE CAMBODIA ENJOYS A SUBSTANTIALLY FREE PRINT MEDIA, local journalism continues to suffer from bitter political divisions and frequent clashes with government authorities. Press freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, and the Khmer-language press is famous for taking dramatic liberties in print, often engaging in name-calling and attacks on various political leaders. Speaking to a…
EMERGING FROM DARKNESS AND DEVASTATION, East Timor’s journalists took their first steps toward building an independent press for the fledgling nation. The leaders of the new country have pledged to promote press freedom after they achieve formal independence (expected by the end of 2001). “We have no intention to interfere in any way with the…