John Emerson

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…

Conditions for the press in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have improved somewhat since the government of President Joseph Kabila signed a peace accord with the main rebel groups in December 2002, ending four years of devastating civil war. However, local journalists still endure harassment, legal action, and imprisonment. They also have come under…

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic suffered an acute economic and social crisis in 2004, with violent crimes occurring almost daily. Criminal gangs escalated attacks against journalists who denounced their activities. On September 14, two gunmen on a motorcycle attacked two journalists who had reported on a criminal gang in the town of Azua, 75 miles…

Ecuador Lucio Gutiérrez, who was elected president in 2002 on an anticorruption platform, repeatedly lashed out at the press in 2004 over allegations of nepotism and campaign finance irregularities. The president and government officials regularly accused the media of “spreading half-truths.” Given the government’s hostility, journalists fear that a new access to information law may…

El Salvador During the March 2004 presidential elections, partisan divisions in the Salvadoran press intensified, while journalists continued to face serious restrictions on access to government information. In a positive development, on October 28 the National Assembly approved reforms of the Salvadoran Penal Code that, among other things, protect journalists from being forced to reveal…

Eritrea Three years after a brutal crackdown in which the government shuttered independent media outlets and detained large numbers of critics, Eritrea remained the leading jailer of journalists in Africa. Seventeen journalists were still in prison at the end of 2004, many held incommunicado in secret jails, according to CPJ research.

Egypt For the first time in years, Egyptian journalists are cautiously optimistic about prospects for press freedom. President Hosni Mubarak, whose record on press issues has been spotty since he took power in 1981, proposed decriminalizing press offenses as public debate about political reforms gained steam. Journalists, for their part, showed greater willingness to take…