Kenya The government of President Mwai Kibaki, whose December 2002 election ended 24 years of rule by the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, struggled in 2004 to keep its election promises of ending corruption and boosting the economy. It failed to meet deadlines for adopting a new constitution, which Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition (NARC)…
KuwaitKuwait’s press is widely recognized as the freest among the Gulf states. Newspapers frequently give voice to the country’s political opposition, and columnists do not spare government officials guilty of corruption or mismanagement. But criminal press statutes remain on the books, and several journalists faced prosecution in 2004.
KyrgyzstanAs the 2005 parliamentary and presidential elections approached, President Askar Akayev and his allies used restrictive laws and politicized government agencies to crack down on opposition voices and the country’s few remaining independent media outlets.
Lebanon Lebanon’s press corps is among the Arab world’s most spirited, with opinionated political debates and fiery TV talk shows. Yet while a wide array of newspapers and radio and TV stations often criticizes government policy in general, journalists avoid direct criticism of President Emile Lahoud and government and business corruption. The government monitors the…
Liberia Conditions for the Liberian press have greatly improved since President Charles Taylor stepped down and accepted exile in Nigeria in August 2003 amid a bloody rebellion. Taylor’s departure paved the way for peace accords between the main rebel groups and the government, bringing relative stability to the country. However, years of civil conflict and…
MoldovaThirteen years after declaring independence from the Soviet Union, Moldova is plagued by a corrupt communist government, a stagnant economy, and an ongoing civil conflict with the breakaway Trans-Dniester Region. Corruption is widespread in a society where criminal groups have fused with the government and business. Independent and opposition media struggle to survive amid a…
Mexico While journalists in the capital, Mexico City, report freely on government, crime, and corruption, reporters in the U.S.-Mexico border region risk grave danger in covering sensitive topics, such as drug trafficking. Two border journalists were killed for their work in 2004. Francisco Ortiz Franco, 48, an editor and reporter with the tabloid weekly Zeta,…
Morocco The government eased a crackdown against independent journalists launched after multiple suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003. But Moroccan journalists—among the most outspoken in the region—were still saddled with onerous press laws and a meddling government. In January, the day before Prime Minister Driss Jettou visited Washington, D.C., King Mohammed VI issued a general…
Mozambique Mozambique’s press has flourished since a devastating 16-year civil war ended in 1992. However, journalists are still haunted by the 2000 murder of Carlos Cardoso, who was killed for his aggressive investigative reporting on a 1996 corruption scandal involving the state-controlled Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM). Although those who carried out the murder were…
Nepal Amid an explosive civil conflict between Maoist rebels and government forces, the safety of the Nepalese press hung on the fragile prospects for peace. Estimates of the death toll since the collapse of a six-month cease-fire in August 2003 vary, but local journalists say heavy fighting in 2004 killed several thousand people. According to…