John Emerson

For many outside the Arab world, the small Gulf state of Qatar is synonymous with the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, which for more than five years has provided bold news coverage on regional affairs. The feisty channel, which subsists on government funding but has earned a reputation for its editorial independence, has incurred the wrath of…

Conditions for Congolese journalists improved slightly last year, even though the harsh 1996 Press Law remained on the books. In the main, President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s unity government found it expedient to tolerate frequently caustic press criticism. On January 13, however, authorities jailed Richard Ntsana of the opposition newspaper Le Flambeau and accused him of…

Widespread poverty, faltering political and economic reforms, and slowing progress toward European Union membership continue to inhibit the expansion of press freedom in Romania, where Ion Iliescu and his leftist coalition won presidential and parliamentary elections held in late 2000.

A decade after the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia still struggled to define the limits of free expression. Nowhere was the struggle more intense than in the media. President Vladimir Putin’s administration was either directly involved in or held responsible for a broad range of abuses, including the selective use of tax audits, prosecutions,…

President Paul Kagame surprised his own cabinet in December when he refused to sign a contentious media bill that prescribed the death penalty for journalists found guilty of inciting genocide. Lawmakers passed the bill in September, citing the macabre role that certain Rwandan media outlets played in promoting and orchestrating the 1994 massacre of more…

Saudi Arabia is one of the most closed societies in the world. The ruling al-Saud family tolerates no political dissent of any kind, especially in the press. Newspapers are deferential toward the ruling family and government policies. Although papers now report more openly on topics such as crime and unemployment, there is no open criticism…

Conditions for local reporters in Senegal have worsened since the March 2000 election of President Abdulaye Wade. A fiery opposition leader for four decades before his rise to power, Wade had cultivated good relations with the media, which he rallied behind his Democratic Party with promises to scrap repressive clauses from the press law.

For the first time since 1996, no journalist was killed in Sierra Leone last year, a welcome development in a country that had earned the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous country in Africa for journalists. However, journalists were threatened by former rebels and government officials alike. In September, seven members of the independent…

In the run-up to November’s general elections, entrenched government control of the media and new regulations governing the Internet and the foreign press virtually silenced public dissent. The ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) overwhelming dominance in the media sector helped guarantee the party’s supremacy: It won more than 75 percent of the vote, its biggest…

As Slovakia adopts political reforms aimed at European Union membership, the government remains slow to change press laws and revamp the state-run media. Criminal libel cases against journalists and political influence over media outlets also hindered the Slovak press in 2001.