Top Developments • Cuba relents on political detainees, frees 17 journalists. Four still held. • In exile, freed journalists face economic, professional difficulties. Key Statistic 45: Poems that journalist and former detainee Ricardo González Alfonso smuggled from prison. After years of intensive advocacy and international diplomacy, 17 independent journalists swept up in the government’s 2003…
Top Developments • Government arrests several journalists on defamation charges. • Journalists fear repression as 2011 presidential election approaches. Key Statistic 2: Weeks that reporter Tumba Lumembu was held incommunicado by intelligence agents. On the defensive over criticism of its human rights record and its handling of the conflict with rebels in eastern Congo, President…
Top Developments • Journalists attacked, broadcasters censored during police uprising. • Correa administration orders broadcasters to air official rebuttals. Key Statistic 6: Hours during which broadcasters were told to suspend programming, carry state news reports on police revolt. President Rafael Correa’s administration used censorship powers throughout the year to supplant independent news and commentary. Authorities…
Top Developments • Government blocks satellite TV, news texting ahead of parliamentary vote. • Political maneuvering seen as critical editor sacked, another jailed. Key Statistic 12: Satellite television stations taken off the air one month before the election. Back in 2005, reporters exposed widespread ballot fraud and voter intimidation during the country’s first multi-party presidential…
Top Developments • Editor Dawit Kebede honored with International Press Freedom Award. • Authorities jail critical journalists, jam VOA Amharic broadcasts. Key Statistic 7: Hours that two newspaper editors were interrogated as Zenawi gave speech on freedom of choice. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, imprisoned journalists, jammed foreign broadcasters, and blocked…
Top Developments • Journalists persevere after quake, working from tents and homes. • Dozens of reporters jobless. Print media sustain heavy losses. Key Statistic 95: Percent of radio stations knocked off the air by the January earthquake. Most had returned by late year. Reflecting the devastation across all of Haitian society, the news media suffered…
Top Developments • Rash of journalist murders occurs in lawless, politically charged climate. • In murder investigations, authorities inattentive and dismissive. Key Statistic 3: Months between Nahúm Palacios Arteaga’s murder and the time authorities conducted an autopsy. Six journalists were murdered in a seven-week span, with three more slain by year’s end, a rash of…
Top Developments • Nation slides backward on press freedom; censorship threats emerge. • Three reporters murdered and magazine attacked, all with impunity. Key Statistic 2: Years’ imprisonment given to Playboy Indonesia editor in a politicized prosecution. Indonesia slipped backward on press freedom as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government sought to balance progressive desires for an…
Top Developments • Authorities sustain their crack- down on critical journalists, arresting dozens. • Journalists face harsh prison terms and mistreatment in custody. Key Statistic 34: Journalists imprisoned on December 1. Along with China, Iran is the world’s worst jailer of the press. Defying international condemnation, the government sustained its widespread crackdown on the press,…
Top Developments • New press court, politically motivated lawsuits raise alarm. • As instability festers, five journalists, three support workers are killed. Key Statistic $1 billion Damages sought by the Kurdistan Democratic Party from a newspaper that detailed alleged political corruption. Instability festered throughout the year as political parties wrangled to form a new government…