John Emerson

IN A COUNTRY PLAGUED BY CORRUPTION AND CRONYISM, the Thai press is taking advantage of constitutional reforms and a more open political environment to investigate official misdeeds. In late December, the leading opposition candidate for prime minister, telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, was indicted on charges of violating rules on the declaration of assets. The charges,…

WIELDING A HARSH NEW PRESS CODE, THE TOGOLESE GOVERNMENT stepped up its harassment of the media last year. At the same time, local and international monitors sharpened their focus on human rights violations in the country. The new Press Code, which replaced a widely praised and far more reasonable 1998 law, was passed on January…

PRIME MINISTER BASDEO PANDAY, WHO HAS SPENT MUCH of his five years in office feuding with the media, found his government embroiled in a constitutional crisis at year’s end, after winning a narrow victory in elections held on December 11. The population of this oil- and gas-rich country is equally divided between people of African…

PRESIDENT ZINE AL-ABIDINE BEN ALI CONTINUED TO DENY BASIC LIBERTIES, including press freedom, even as his government’s shameful human-rights record came under increased international scrutiny. For the third year in a row, CPJ named Ben Ali to its annual list of the “Ten Worst Enemies of the Press.” Over the years, Ben Ali has stifled…

In December 1999, the European Union (EU) finally agreed to accept Turkey’s application for membership. Yet questions remained about the government’s committment to the human-rights reforms needed to actually join the EU. If press freedom is any indicator, Turkey has a long way to go. Government censorship, criminal prosecutions, physical attacks, and imprisonment were among…

APPOINTED PRESIDENT FOR LIFE IN DECEMBER 1999, Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov heads an increasingly authoritarian and isolationist regime. Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashi, or “father of all Turkmen people,” ordered the burning of new history textbooks last year for not sufficiently emphasizing the Turkmen people’s historic role in the development of Central Asia and Europe.

IN LATE JUNE, A NATIONAL REFERENDUM REAFFIRMED PUBLIC CONFIDENCE in Uganda’s unique no-party political system. President Yoweri Museveni suspended the activities of political parties in 1986, arguing that the parties, many of which had religious or tribal bases, were the root of the armed conflicts and other problems afflicting Uganda and the rest of Africa.…

LAST YEAR, PRESIDENT LEONID KUCHMA RAMPED UP his habitual censorship of anti-government newspapers and his attacks and threats against independent journalists. Late in the year, the abduction and presumed murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze brought the plight of Ukrainian journalists into sharp relief, while allegations that Kuchma may have directed the killing sparked a…

SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1981, CPJ HAS, AS A MATTER OF STRATEGY and policy, concentrated on press freedom violations and attacks on journalists outside the United States. CPJ aims to concentrate its efforts on those countries where journalists are most in need of international support and protection. As a result, we do not systematically monitor…

URUGUAY IS HOME TO ONE OF THE MOST VIBRANT MEDIA SCENES in the Americas, but public officials frequently pursue criminal defamation cases against journalists, while state advertising is distributed to reward media that provide favorable coverage of the government. Uruguayan journalists say that criminal defamation cases have become commonplace in the last decade. Under Article…