Relations between Fiji’s lively independent press and the newly elected government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry deteriorated badly over the course of the year, as the administration’s near-constant verbal attacks against local media were punctuated by more serious actions. On June 21, Assistant Minister for Information Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi announced that the government would introduce…
The press freedom climate in Gabon was rife with contradiction last year. Although the government of President Omar Bongo exercised much less control over public opinion than in previous years, local journalists increasingly practiced self-censorship, in line with the virtual lack of political opposition in this oil-rich country. Since the general elections of 1997, which…
While President Yahya Jammeh made progress in appeasing skeptical donor nations–by radically reshuffling the government and stepping up an anti-corruption drive, for example–the Gambia’s independent media remained on shaky ground. Many observers agreed that President Jammeh was intent on quashing all potential challenges to his authority during the run-up to the 2001 presidential election, which…
Struggling to maintain their independence in Ghana, journalists continued to run the risk of violating the country’s criminal- and seditious-libel laws. Some of these laws date back to the colonial era and carry such penalties as exorbitant fines and prison sentences. The recent rise in the number of libel suits against Ghana’s indepen-dent press continued…
President Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen maintained a hostile relationship with the press during his four years in power but took a more subtle approach in 1999 when the country held legislative and presidential elections. Arzú, who had previously railed against journalists who criticized his government, toned down his rhetoric but continued to undermine the press through…
Although the Guinean constitution guarantees freedom of expression, the draconian 1991 press law still allows for the arrest and detention of journalists on charges of seditious libel. The government-owned broadcast media and the country’s one daily newspaper, the state-owned Horoya, toe the party line accordingly. Reporters for the state press generally practice self-censorship for the…
In a year marked by political turmoil and restive street demonstrations, Haitian media faced violence, intolerance, and a corrupt judicial system. President René Préval, who succeeded President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1995, dismissed Parliament in January but failed to hold new elections. At year’s end, elections were scheduled for March 2000. Supporters of the Lavalas Family…
The press limped through its first full year after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch. Restrictive government policies aimed at silencing independent media and corruption among local journalists themselves cast a long shadow over press freedom. The country’s few independent journalists routinely face government pressures. Their phones are often tapped, they are ridiculed by the…
Relations between the press and the Hong Kong government have deteriorated sharply in the two years since Britain returned the former colony to China. While the Hong Kong press remains one of the freest and most aggressive in the region, the strains of the “one-country-two systems” formula devised by communist China to govern the capitalist…
India’s extraordinary diversity is often seen as its greatest strength, but religious, ethnic, and regional conflicts regularly pose significant challenges to the country’s democracy, and to its press. While the Indian press remains one of the most pluralistic and vibrant in the world, journalists are still vulnerable to attack. And under the leadership of the…