Mick Stern
Attacks on the Press 2009: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Top Developments • RFI removed from FM frequencies; other stations censored.• Hundreds march in nine provinces to protest ongoing threats, violence. Key Statistic 3: Female journalists threatened with “a bullet to the head” after focusing their work on women’s issues. Authorities censored coverage of armed conflict and human rights violations in the mineral-rich eastern Kivu…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Ecuador
Top Developments • Correa assails news media, and regulators target critical outlets. • Media legislation could restrict freedom of expression. Key Statistic 3: Days that regulators ordered Teleamazonas off the air. Re-elected by a landslide in April, President Rafael Correa intensified his attacks on critical news media, calling them ignorant and deceitful. As Correa used…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Egypt
Top Developments• Government is among the region’s worst oppressors of online expression.• Several editors fined for reporting on the president and other sensitive topics. Key Statistic 3: Online journalists imprisoned as of December 1, 2009. Authorities followed familiar tactics to control news media, pursuing politicized court cases, imposing fines, using regulatory tools, and harassing journalists. With Egypt…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Ethiopia
Top Developments• Terrorism law criminalizes coverage of sensitive topics.• Broadcasting Authority serves as government censor. Key Statistic 4: Journalists jailed as of December 1, 2009. Ahead of national elections scheduled for May 2010, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) further curtailed the limited freedom of the country’s small number of independent newspapers. The government enacted…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Gambia
Top Developments• Hydara murder unsolved; secrecy surrounds Manneh detention.• Domestic, international pressure prompts Jammeh to halt crackdown. Key Statistic 6: Journalists jailed for sedition after saying president’s remarks on Hydara case were insensitive. Authorities jailed six journalists after their publications said President Yahya Jammeh had been insensitive in televised remarks about the unsolved 2004 murder of prominent…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Georgia
Top Developments • TV news politicized due to government manipulation. • Opposition-aligned broadcaster obstructed. Key Statistic 7: Percent of Internet penetration nationwide. While no journalists were killed or imprisoned in Georgia in 2009, press freedom in this small South Caucasus nation stagnated due to persistent state manipulation of news media, particularly television broadcasting. In a…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Honduras
Top Developments • Coup damages press freedom, reveals partisan media divide. • Supporters of both sides in the conflict wage attacks on the press. Key Statistic 22: Days that Radio Globo and Canal 36 were off the air due to government censorship. The June coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, along with the bitter stalemate…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Iran
Top Developments• Dozens of journalists are detained in massive post-election crackdown.• Numerous critical newspapers, Web sites censored or shut down. Key Statistic 23: Journalists imprisoned as of December 1, 2009. Amid the greatest national political upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran launched a full-scale assault on the media and the opposition. In mid-June, mass protests erupted…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Iraq
Top Developments• Fatalities and abductions plummet as security situation improves.• Prime minister, others file lawsuits to harass media. Kurdish courts jail six journalists. Key Statistic 4: Journalists killed in connection to their work, the lowest tally since the war began in 2003. Four Iraqi journalists were killed because of their work as the press continued to face…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Top Developments• Israel bars international press access to Gaza fighting.• Fatah, Hamas detain, harass media perceived as biased. Key Statistic 4: News media buildings in Gaza hit by Israeli airstrikes. As the year began, the Israeli military waged a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip in response to a series of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli…