The Rwandan media continued operating in an atmosphere of pervasive self-censorship periodically reinforced by government repression. In a January 24 speech broadcast on state radio, President Paul Kagame accused Rwandan journalists of unprofessional conduct, including corruption, and suggested that this justified limits on press freedom.
SAUDI ARABIA Prompted by post-9/11 criticism that Saudi Arabia’s closed society had bred violent religious extremism, the government has eased constraints on the country’s heavily censored domestic press, and local journalists have seized the initiative to produce more daring reports on crime, drug trafficking, unemployment, and religious extremism. But progress has been uneven and limited,…
SOMALIA The killing of a Swedish photojournalist at a pro-government rally in Mogadishu underscored the dangers faced by journalists covering renewed political turmoil in Somalia, which has had no effective central administration since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. Against a background of military conflict between the U.N.-backed transitional government and the Islamic…
SRI LANKA Hopes that the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels would be able to salvage their crumbling cease-fire were dashed in 2006. By September, the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were again locked in combat in the north and east of the country. While the conflict looked similar to that…
TAJIKISTAN President Imomali Rakhmonov buried independent and international media under a blizzard of arbitrary licensing regulations, content restrictions, and fees. Though Rakhmonov faced no strong opposition in the November presidential election, his administration limited critical news coverage in the run-up to his victory over four little-known opponents. Regulatory agencies—wary, too, of the sort of news…
A year of political turmoil climaxed in a military coup that accelerated the deterioration of Thailand’s press freedom climate. Royalist generals seized power on September 19 while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York attending the U.N. General Assembly. The coup was condemned abroad, but the new leadership was endorsed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej,…
TUNISIA Despite its election to the newly established U.N. Human Rights Council in May, Tunisia under the autocratic rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali continued to pursue a policy of muzzling critical media and harassing independent journalists and their families. In February, the U.N. vote approaching, Ben Ali pardoned Hamadi Jebali, editor of…
TURKEY A wave of criminal prosecutions against the press reignited doubts about Turkey’s commitment to Western-style democracy and a free press just one year after the nation began formal talks for European Union membership. Journalists and writers found themselves the repeated targets of criminal lawsuits initiated under vaguely worded, restrictive statutes that remained on the…
TURKMENISTAN The December 21 death of Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-proclaimed president-for-life, ended a two-decade rule that plunged Turkmenistan into a dark abyss in which the state maintained absolute control over information. His sudden death from heart failure at age 66 left the nation with an indelible legacy of repression. Niyazov’s eccentric personality probably won’t be…
UGANDA Uganda held multiparty presidential elections in February for the first time in President Yoweri Museveni’s 20-year reign, with multiparty district council elections following in March. While Museveni easily won a new five-year term, according to official results, the election was marred by government harassment of the media and the leading presidential opponent, Kizza Besigye.…