CÔTE D’IVOIRE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES CENSORSHIP PLAN
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in CÔTE D’IVOIRE New York, June 28, 2000-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely disturbed by plans announced by the military government of the Côte D’Ivoire to tighten control over the editorial content of local newspapers and other media outlets.
Two journalists killed by gunmen; two others wounded
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in SIERRA LEONE New York, May 24, 2000 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the latest murderous attack on journalists in Sierra Leone, which claimed the lives of two western journalists and left two others injured on Wednesday, according to news agencies and…
Attacks on the Press 1999: 1999 Death Toll: Listed by Country
[Click here for full list of documented cases] At its most fundamental level, the job of a journalist is to bear witness. In 1999, journalists in Sierra Leone witnessed rebels’ atrocities against civilians in the streets of Freetown. In the Balkans, journalists watched ethnic Albanians fleeing the deadly menace of Serbian police and paramilitaries. In…
Attacks on the Press 1999: The Trauma of Sierra Leone
Introduction On January 6, 1999, rebel forces entered Freetown and launched a campaign of terror. Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters systematically murdered, mutilated, and raped thousands of civilians. During the three weeks that it took for Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping troops to expel the rebels from Freetown, Sierra Leone officially became the most dangerous country…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Algeria
Since his controversial, unopposed April 15 election, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has raised public hopes of ending the brutal civil strife that has plagued this North African nation for eight years. Buoyed by the president’s efforts to promote national reconciliation, Algerians eagerly sought to resume their normal lives after years of bloodshed. For the country’s press,…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani press groups have proposed that August 6, 1998, the day that censorship was officially abolished, be declared Press Freedom Day. The move may be premature. While conditions have improved notably since then, journalists still must contend with lawsuits and threats of violence. The 1998 presidential decree that abolished censorship also dismantled Glavlit, the Soviet-era…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina suffered physical attacks that ranged from beatings and abduction to the car-bombing of a noted Bosnian Serb newspaper editor. The attack on Zeljko Kopanja came in October, after his Banja Luka paper published investigative reports about alleged war crimes and acts of corruption committed by Bosnian Serbs. Reports from the Helsinki Committee…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Colombia
In a year that saw both an escalation of Colombia’s armed conflict and a tentative beginning of peace negotiations, the press found itself in the crosshairs of nearly every party to the increasingly complicated civil war. Five journalists were killed in the line of duty, while scores of others were threatened, attacked, or kidnapped. Colombian…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Cuba
President Fidel Castro Ruz’s government did its best to stamp out independent journalism in Cuba this year, promulgating a bill that virtually outlaws free expression and perfecting preemptive repression. The Cuban constitution grants the Communist Party the right to control the press; it recognizes “freedom of speech and the press in accordance with the goals…
Attacks on the Press 1999: Kenya
The year saw several arrests and other legal actions aimed at stifling press coverage of such issues as official corruption and constitutional reform, along with several cases of open violence against journalists by agents of the state. One shocking example of the last was the February 15 abduction and beating of David Makali, editor of…