John Emerson

Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has ruled this small, oil-rich central African country with an iron grip since 1979, when he overthrew his uncle in a coup and had him executed. With one of the worst human rights records on the continent, Equatorial Guinea is also one of the few African countries to have…

Ethiopia In the run-up to 2005 elections, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front came under increasing criticism from local journalists and international media organizations for its antagonism toward the country’s private press. Authorities continued to imprison journalists for their reporting and to intimidate others into silence on sensitive issues, such as government infighting and…

Gabon President Omar Bongo, in office for 37 years, maintained a solid grip on power in this oil-rich Central African nation, where opposition movements are weak and the press is under bureaucratic assault. In 2004, the National Communications Council (CNC), a government-controlled media regulatory body, continued to censor private media outlets, provoking protests from local…

The Gambia The December murder of veteran journalist and press freedom activist Deyda Hydara fueled mounting fears among journalists and punctuated a year marked by arson attacks, threats, and repressive legislation aimed at the independent media in this tiny West African country. President Yahya Jammeh and his ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC)…

GeorgiaMany in the news media had high hopes that this South Caucasus nation would pursue a path of greater press freedom due to the instrumental role that journalists played in the “Rose Revolution,” which swept President Eduard Shevardnadze and his corruption-riddled Cabinet out of office in November 2003. The independent television station Rustavi-2 was particularly…

Guatemala In December 2004, the U.N. Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) ceased monitoring the implementation of the 1996 peace accords that ended decades of civil conflict. The end of the MINUGUA mission was a political milestone for Guatemala, yet the peace accords have not been fully implemented, and human rights abuses remain widespread.

Haiti Supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide attacked opposition journalists in the months prior to the uprising that forced Aristide from power in February. After the president fled the country, rebel groups targeted pro-Aristide journalists, particularly in Haiti’s rural northern and central regions. Violence against journalists was especially intense in January and February, when the…

Indonesia Indonesians made history in 2004 by voting in democratic elections for Parliament in April and the presidency in July and September. But a natural catastrophe of unprecedented scope cast a pall over the archipelago nation in late December, when a tsunami killed at least 115,000 people.

IndiaIn a stunning upset, India’s voters surprised the media and the world by rejecting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalism in favor of the secular Indian National Congress party in general elections in May. However, despite the general disavowal of extremism at the polls, ethnic and religious tensions persisted in the…

IranIn an effort to counter the growing influence of Internet journalists and news bloggers, whose popularity has grown as sources of dissident news and opinion, Iranian officials imposed new constraints on Internet use, blocked Web content, and arrested a number of online journalists.