IVORY COAST The news media were caught in the middle of political tensions that have split the country between a government-ruled south and a rebel-held north since 2002. In the south and west, militant groups harassed, intimidated, and attacked media outlets as a U.N.-backed power-sharing government installed at the end of 2005 failed to bring…
KAZAKHSTAN President Nursultan Nazarbayev strengthened his government’s control of the news media amid a political crisis driven by the February assassination of prominent opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbayev. Ten low-level government officials and security agents were soon charged and convicted in the killing, but members of the opposition Naghyz Ak Zhol party said government involvement reached…
KYRGYZSTAN Months of discontent over President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s failure to enact reforms to combat crime, corruption, and economic woes boiled over in November when thousands of protesters gathered for a week of demonstrations in the central square of the capital, Bishkek. Bakiyev, ushered into office in a popular uprising just 19 months earlier, averted a…
Israel’s summer offensive in Lebanon was filled with danger for hundreds of journalists who braved bombs and bullets to cover fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas. The offensive began after guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight near the Lebanese-Israeli border. During the 34-day conflict, one journalist and a media worker were killed,…
MEXICO Gunmen stormed the offices of the Nuevo Laredo daily El Mañana in February, firing assault rifles, tossing a grenade—and setting the tone for another dangerous year for Mexican journalists. The shocking assault, which seriously injured reporter Jaime Orozco, spurred the federal government to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against the press. The…
Morocco’s robust independent press has few rivals in the Middle East, yet press freedom has eroded under what many journalists and human rights groups consider a government-inspired judicial assault against outspoken newspapers. During the year, several such publications were targets of criminal prosecutions that produced high damages and prison terms for journalists.
NEPAL Journalists played a lead role in resisting and ultimately reversing an audacious 14-month power grab by King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. Hundreds took to the streets in the capital, Kathmandu, and elsewhere to protest measures by the king to suspend radio news broadcasts and deploy the country’s security forces and civil authorities to…
NIGER Authorities used a repressive press law to jail journalists despite President Mamadou Tandja’s 2004 pledge to abolish prison terms for so-called press offenses. Three journalists spent months behind bars, prompting demonstrations and international outcry. In a country suffering from chronic food shortages, the private press frequently accused public figures of corruption and the mismanagement…
NIGERIA President Olusegun Obasanjo’s attempt to amend the constitution so he could seek a third term in the April 2007 election galvanized opponents and stoked political tensions and violence. Media critical of the president’s move found themselves the targets of harassment by security services. But the climate for all media worsened, and attacks on the…