1995 results
PREFACE by Peter Arnett INTRODUCTION by Ann Cooper REGIONAL ANALYSES: Africa | Americas | Asia | Europe and Central Asia | Middle East and North Africa AFRICA country summaries Angola | Benin | Burkina Faso | Burundi | Cameroon | Chad | Democratic Republic of Congo | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Gambia | Ghana |…
ALTHOUGH RIGHTS TO FREE EXPRESSION AND PRESS FREEDOM are enshrined in national constitutions from Algeria to Yemen, governments found many practical ways to restrict these freedoms. State ownership of the media, censorship, legal harassment, intimidation, and imprisonment of journalists were again among the favored tools of repression and control. In Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria,…
STATE-SPONSORED ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS ABATED significantly and some reforms were initiated last year, but the Albanian press still faced economic underdevelopment, low professional standards, and ongoing security risks. High taxes and printing costs, poor distribution networks, low advertising revenues, limited business skills, and endemic corruption have made editors and publishers dependent on subsidies from political…
PRESIDENT HEIDAR ALIYEV AND OTHER AZERBAIJANI OFFICIALS repeatedly proclaimed their support for freedoms of association and expression, but the November parliamentary elections highlighted the regime’s authoritarianism. The government banned opposition rallies, harassed opposition leaders, and temporarily suspended several opposition parties from the contest. International observers found multiple problems with the election itself, which was nevertheless…
MACEDONIAN MEDIA ARE DIVIDED ALONG THE SAME ETHNIC LINES that define the country as a whole. At times in 2000, local press coverage of disruptions in the fragile balance between the country’s two main ethnic groups-majority ethnic Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians-was reminiscent of the verbal wars that preceded the violent dissolution of the former…
IN DECEMBER, STRONGMAN OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR WON overwhelmingly in presidential elections that were boycotted by Sudan’s two main opposition parties. Both parties had conditioned their participation on an end to the 17-year civil war and to human-rights abuses, including restrictions on the press. State harassment of journalists and newspapers has been a persistent feature of…
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…
EIGHTY-ONE JOURNALISTS WERE IN PRISON AROUND THE WORLD at the end of 2000, jailed for practicing their profession. The number is down slightly from the previous year, when 87 were in jail, and represents a significant decline from 1998, when 118 journalists were imprisoned. While jailing journalists can be an effective means of stifling bad…
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in IRAN New York, October 24, 2000 — Iran’s hard-line judiciary banned three reformist newspapers yesterday, bringing to at least 27 the total number of papers shut down since April, when the conservative Press Court launched a broad press crackdown.