ATR

Although India is the world’s largest democracy, with a diverse and expanding media, government authorities remained sensitive to criticism in the press in 2003. Officials harassed journalists through lawsuits, using restrictive laws governing criminal defamation, contempt of court, and national security to silence reporters’ accounts of corruption. Meanwhile, violence in the disputed state of Kashmir…

Indonesia’s press freedom climate remains fragile, without the constitutional and legal safeguards necessary to guarantee journalists’ safety and access to information. In 2003, military restrictions on reporters’ access to conflict areas and harsh lawsuits presented the greatest threat to the media since former dictator Suharto was ousted in 1998.

The death in detention of Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi in July punctuated a year of ongoing state repression against dissident media. Newspaper closures continued, as did the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of journalists. The press crackdown further added to popular disappointment with Iran’s two-term president, Mohammed Khatami, whose attempts at social and political reform…

The U.S.-led war in Iraq proved extremely dangerous for journalists. More than a dozen lost their lives reporting there in 2003, and many seasoned war correspondents have called the postwar environment the most risky assignment of their lives. With the demise of Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime, Iraqi media have flourished, but news organizations faced potentially…

The brutal murder of a French journalist in the Ivory Coast in October highlighted the lack of security in the country in 2003. The killing came after the collapse of the government of national reconciliation in September, when rebels walked out and accused President Laurent Gbagbo of refusing to fully implement the peace process. Despite…

The new government of Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez, formed in October 2003, pledged to improve basic freedoms in Jordan. But if the last two years are any indication, the task will be formidable. Since 2001, Jordan has witnessed a sharp erosion of liberties, chief among them press freedom. After King Abdullah II dissolved Parliament in…

With rebel forces overring the capital, Monrovia, and the international community clamoring for his departure, Liberian President Charles Taylor resigned and accepted exile in Nigeria on August 11. Taylor’s departure paved the way for a transitional national government–comprised, in part, of representatives from two rebel groups, as well as members of Taylor’s government–to lead the…

There was hope for a peaceful resolution toe the political violence in Nepal on January 29, 2003, when the government and Maoist rebels signed a cease-fire agreement to halt their seven-year civil conflict. However, the deepening political crisis within the country’s constitutional monarchy and the eventual collapse of the cease-fire in August sparked a sharp…

After U.S. President George W. Bush claimed in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy uranium from the impoverished West African country of Niger, outraged journalists and President Mamadou Tandja, who has led the nation since its return to civilian rule in 1999, rallied to the…

In Nigeria’s first successful transfer between civilian administrations since independence in 1960, President Olusegun Obasanjo was re-elected in a landslide victory that also saw his ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) make significant gains in polls across the country. Despite the relatively peaceful conduct of the election, opposition parties and election observers alleged widespread fraud, irregularities,…