2837 results
Political turmoil and an intensified Maoist insurgency severely strained Nepal’s young democracy and profoundly challenged the country’s independent media. In November 2001, the government, then led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, imposed a state of emergency, introduced a sweeping anti-terrorism ordinance, and called out the army to counter the mounting threat posed by Maoist…
Russian president Vladimir Putin, along with his coterie of conservative former intelligence officials, pressed ahead in 2002 to impose his vision of a “dictatorship of the law” in Russia to create a “managed democracy.” Putin’s goal of an obedient and patriotic press meant that the Kremlin continued using various branches of the state apparatus to…
Although Rwandan president Paul Kagame has been in power for nine years, in July, he canceled elections scheduled for 2003 because his government remains “in a transition phase.” Despite almost a decade of rule, the Kagame administration has yet to draft a constitution that safeguards even basic freedoms.
Despite a hostile political and economic atmosphere, the Solomon Islands’ small but tenacious media have managed to pursue controversial stories, including exposés of official misconduct and links between the government and ethnic militias. In 1998, a violent conflict erupted after indigenous residents of Guadalcanal, the archipelago’s largest island, formed the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM) to…
On September 27, in a landmark decision for press freedom in South Africa, a Johannesburg court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele against the independent daily Mail & Guardian and its former editor Phillip van Niekerk. Van Niekerk and the Mail & Guardian had been sued over the paper’s December…
During 2002, Thailand’s reputation as a regional haven of constitutionally guaranteed free expression was frequently assaulted by the country’s powerful prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his political allies. The government booted radio and television programs off the air, threatened Thai journalists with financial investigations and foreign reporters with expulsion, and engaged in angry exchanges with…
The Togolese government attempted to create a veneer of openness and democracy by finally holding twice-postponed legislative elections, while President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (Rally of the Togolese People, or RPT) increasingly harassed the private press. Authorities’ routine censorship of private publications, imprisonment of reporters, and attempts to impose new…
In November, the Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party won parliamentary elections in Turkey. The new prime minister, Abdullah Gul, and influential party head Recep Tayyip Erdogan affirmed that joining the European Union would be a top government priority. To that end, they promised greater democratic reform, including an easing of long-standing restrictions on freedom of…
The magnitude of President Saparmurat Niyazov’s cult of personality might even astonish the Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin. A golden statue in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, honors Niyazov, who is called “Turkmenbashi,” or “the Father of All Turkmen,” and his portrait graces the country’s currency. In 2002, Niyazov’s birthday was declared a national holiday, and he renamed…