Among many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, the optimism that accompanied the establishment of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian National Authority (PNA) six years ago appears to have given way to disillusionment. Widespread corruption within the PNA, its perceived failure in negotiating a just peace, and worsening economic conditions for much of the population…
Although Kuwait enjoys one of the region’s most vibrant and respected presses, journalists recently experienced a noticeable deterioration in their freedoms. Government censorship continued in 1999, as did criminal prosecutions of reporters under the country’s press law and criminal code. After a welcome January court decision that canceled a six-month prison sentence imposed on former…
The press continued to suffer under the regime of Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who marked his 10th year in power by allowing restricted multiparty politics. Some private newspapers were noticeably more aggressive in their coverage of issues such as official corruption and the country’s 16-year-old civil war. In response, authorities punished outspoken newspapers with…
With the passing of Morocco’s King Hassan II and King Hussein of Jordan, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad became the Arab world’s second-longest-surviving leader. Only Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi has ruled longer. During three decades of one-man rule, Assad has ruthlessly eradicated all internal dissent. His February “reelection” by referendum with nearly 100 percent of the…
In a year that saw strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali reelected in October with 99.42 percent of the vote, the press remained in the stranglehold of the Tunisian police state. For the second year in a row, CPJ named President Ben Ali one of the world’s top 10 enemies of the press. Since ousting “president…
For years, Turkey has had one of the liveliest yet most restricted presses in the region. This paradox was again on display in 1999. Print and broadcast media continued to cover sensitive social and political topics and were often unbridled in their criticism of the government–notably during the authorities’ sloppy rescue efforts after the devastating…
During the heady days following the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen in 1990, there was a remarkable proliferation of private newspapers and a new vigor in public discourse. In recent years, however, the Yemeni government has been following the repressive example of its regional neighbors. Although Yemen still boasts one of the freest…
New York, March 14, 2000 — A leading reformist newspaper publisher who was shot in the face on March 12 is battling for his life in a Tehran hospital. Saeed Hajjarian, 47, an advisor to President Mohammad Khatami who also publishes the newspaper Sobh-e Emrooz, which has consistently criticized Iran’s hard-line religious rulers, may have…
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in Egypt. New York, April 1, 2000 —The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the New York-based press freedom watchdog, today condemned an Egyptian criminal court’s sentencing of three opposition journalists to prison terms of up totwo years for libel.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in YEMEN. New York, April 3, 2000 —The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges U.S. president Bill Clinton to put press freedom high on the agenda for his meeting with Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Washington tomorrow. Since the end of Yemen’s 1994 civil war,…