Brazil A proposed bill to regulate the press, as well as the attempted expulsion of a New York Times correspondent, highlighted the growing tension between the Brazilian media and the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula. In August, the government submitted a controversial bill to Congress that would have regulated…
Burma Although Burma’s authoritarian military rulers proposed a “road map” to democracy in 2004, neither the Burmese people nor its press saw many positive results. On the contrary, conditions for journalists deteriorated, with hard-liners tightening their grip on power inside the government and cracking down further on Burma’s official media and the few remaining independent…
Burundi Some 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed in Burundi to support a peace process aimed at ending the country’s brutal civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands since ethnic Tutsi troops murdered the elected Hutu president in 1993. Despite wrangling over a new constitution and the postponement of elections by six months, the transitional…
Cameroon President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 22 years, won another seven-year term in October elections marked by allegations of fraud. Because opposition groups remained weak and fragmented, Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement felt little need to campaign. The polling date was not set until mid-September, and Biya waited another five…
Chile A protracted sex scandal that roiled Chile during 2004 highlighted the country’s restrictive legal framework for journalists, as well as public officials’ lack of tolerance for criticism in the media. In September 2003, businessman Claudio Spiniak was arrested and accused of leading a prostitution and pornography ring. Politicians, prominent businessmen, and a Roman Catholic…
China (including Hong Kong)It was a disappointing year for those who hoped that President Hu Jintao would allow a greater degree of freedom for China’s increasingly market-oriented press. After taking over the presidency from Jiang Zemin in 2003, Hu consolidated power in September 2004, when Jiang gave up his final leadership post, the chairmanship of…
Colombia For the first time in more than a decade, CPJ documented no case in 2004 in which a journalist was killed for his or her work. While violence against Colombian journalists may have receded—31 were murdered for their work during the last decade, according to CPJ research—it does not reflect an improvement in conditions…
Costa Rica The nine-year legal battle of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, a reporter with the San José–based daily La Nación (The Nation), ended on August 3, when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights announced a ruling overturning his 1999 conviction on criminal defamation charges. The Costa Rica–based court also ruled that the sentence harmed the reporter’s…
CroatiaAfter returning to power in 2003, the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), tried to reassure voters and the international community that it had moved beyond the repressive right-wing policies that marked its ironfisted rule during the 1990s. Senior HDZ officials reasserted influence over state media but kept a looser hold on independent journalists as Croatia…
Cuba Six Cuban journalists jailed in a crackdown that began in March 2003 were released in 2004, but with 23 members of the media still behind bars, this Caribbean nation remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, second only to China. During 2004, Cuban authorities continued their systematic harassment of journalists and their…