Why a killing in Chechnya is an international issue
By Nina Ognianova The day before, Natalya Estemirova had seen off two colleagues from Moscow. Yelena Milashina, a reporter with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Tanya Lokshina, an advocate with the international group Human Rights Watch, had traveled to Chechnya on separate assignments. Like many visiting journalists and human rights defenders, Milashina and Lokshina had…
Human rights coverage spreads, despite government pushback
By Mohamed Abdel Dayem and Robert Mahoney The media in the Middle East loved the Intifada. Every detail of Israel’s violations of human rights in the late 1980s in the West Bank and Gaza appeared in the Arabic and Farsi press. The governments that owned or controlled these media outlets loved it, too. When pan-Arab…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Afghanistan
Top Developments • Government tries to curb reporting on Election Day violence. • Abductions target foreign reporters, endangering local journalists, too. Key Statistic 20: Years that Parwez Kambakhsh would have spent in jail on an unjust charge. He was freed in August. Deepening violence, flawed elections, rampant corruption, and faltering development provided plenty of news…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Argentina
Top Developments• New broadcast law sparks contentious debate, raises concerns.• In major victory, criminal defamation laws are repealed. Key Statistic 200: Tax agents who raided Clarín in apparent reprisal for the newspaper’s coverage. Press freedom advocates won two important victories as congress decriminalized defamation, and a federal court issued a ruling that, while still under appeal, could…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Armenia
Top Developments• Broadcast media controlled by government or its allies.• Numerous assaults reported, but police do little. Key Statistic 12: Broadcast license applications filed by independent outlet A1+. None approved. The nation remained polarized by the fraud-marred 2008 presidential election won by Serzh Sargsyan, with large public protests and violent government reprisals continuing well into 2009. The…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Azerbaijan
Top Developments• Critical reporters jailed for defamation, “hooliganism.”• CPJ honors imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev. Key Statistic 68: Novruzali Mamedov’s age when he died in prison after being denied medical care. Using imprisonment as a crude form of censorship, the authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev remained one of the region’s worst jailers of journalists. Authorities allowed one…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Bahrain
Top Developments• Authorities block Web sites critical of the government, the king, and Islam.• Officials pursue politicized court complaints against critical reporters. Key Statistic 1,040: Web sites that the Ministry of Information ordered censored in September. Bahrain has made significant strides in improving its human rights record since political reforms enacted in 2001, particularly concerning universal suffrage…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Belarus
Top Developments• Restrictive law requires media obtain government registration.• Administration eases some repressive tactics to gain EU favor. Key Statistic 13: Independent papers blacklisted by state-controlled distributors. Authorities eased their heavy-handed tactics of repression for much of the year even as a restrictive new media law took effect. The change in tone coincided with the European Union’s…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Brazil
Top Developments• Judges in defamation cases issue sweeping censorship orders.• Ex-police officers convicted in abduction, torture of O Dia journalists. Key Statistic 44: Defamation lawsuits filed by a single congressman. Complaints target dozens of journalists for critical coverage. In a major advance for press freedom, Brazil’s highest court struck down a repressive 1967 law that criminalized broad…