Prime Minister Lester B. Bird was reelected on March 9, but critics say the victory was achieved through widespread vote buying and total control over broadcast media in the tiny three-island nation. In the days preceding the vote, many opposition political ads were pulled off the air. The Bird family and its Antigua Labour Party…
In late 1998, the breakdown of the 1994 Lusaka peace accords led to the resumption of a brutal civil war that has killed more than half a million Angolans and devastated the country’s economy. Since then there has been a marked increase in the frequency and seriousness of reported press freedom violations in Angola. At…
During his decade in office, former president Carlos Menem used a flurry of lawsuits to stifle independent reporting in Argentina. His best efforts failed. When Menem stepped down on December 10, he left behind a vital and independent Argentine press. Journalists, particularly those in the provinces, continue to worry about their physical safety. The May…
Journalists in Bangladesh were frequently subjected to physical assault, harassment, and intimidation as the country was wracked by political and criminal violence. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, intensified its campaign to oust the current government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, frequently calling countrywide strikes during…
Under the rule of President Mathieu Kerekou, who was elected in April 1996 after ruling as a left-leaning military dictator from 1972 until 1989, the Benin government has won international praise for its efforts to liberalize the country’s political environment. These efforts have not always worked to the advantage of local journalists. In January, the…
While President Hugo Banzer’s government used the state intelligence apparatus to intimidate journalists, the Bolivian press continued to report aggressively on a number of public scandals. Banzer, a general who led a military government from 1971 to 1978, publicly embraced press freedom after he was democratically elected president in 1997. But many local journalists are…
As Africa’s oldest multiparty democracy, with a code of human rights enshrined in the constitution, Botswana enjoys a relatively free and open press. Yet problems do exist, including the arbitrary use of the Immigration Act to silence foreign journalists working in the country by declaring them “prohibited immigrants.” One of the most contentious issues this…
While journalists in Brazil enjoy widespread popular support, restrictive laws pending before Congress and a number of violent attacks against the provincial press sparked concern among press freedom organizations in the country. Efforts to reform the 1967 press law, considered “undemocratic and anachronistic” by local reporters, stalled in the Chamber of Deputies. Although most local…
President Blaise Compaoré seized power in 1987 before seeking legitimacy through the ballot box in 1991 and again in 1998. But his regime still draws much of its authority from the army, especially from the infamous Presidential Guard Regiment (RSP), which local independent journalists blamed for several extrajudicial killings last year. It remains dangerous to…
Forcing their citizenry to live behind a wall of repressive ignorance, Burma’s military leaders have shown no signs of liberalizing one of the world’s harshest regimes. With all media controlled by the state, and access to the Internet, modems, fax machines and other communication devices strictly licensed and controlled, local journalists are reduced to reproducing…