Once regarded as one of Central Asia’s more progressive countries, impoverished Kyrgyzstan has become highly repressive when it comes to the press. Despite having cast himself as a liberal when he took office in 1991, in recent years President Askar Akayev has tightened the government’s grip on the independent and opposition media.
Laos likes to keep to itself, and the Communist government does everything in its power to see that it stays that way. The country is one of the most isolated and information-starved in Asia, with no independent media of any kind. In 2001, the government announced that limited ownership of private media would be allowed,…
Lebanese media feature diverse opinions, aggressive question-and-answer television programs with government officials, and lively criticism of authorities and policies. In addition, the prevalence of satellite dishes gives Lebanese citizens access to other Arab and international TV stations.
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…
President Bakili Muluzi’s election in 1999 was hailed as a return to democratic rule after years of dictatorship under Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Muluzi has called himself a friend of the press, but he has proved to be a fair-weather friend. Throughout 2003, journalists in this small, Southern African country endured frequent harassment from government officials…
After 22 years of autocratci leadership, Asia’s longest serving ruler, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, stepped down from his post in October, leaving behind a legacy of rapid economic growth. He also left strict controls on the press enforced through virtual one-party rule, crony ownership of most media outlets, and a pervasive climate of self-censorship.
In 2003, Mauritania’s press remained subject to the whims of the Interior Ministry, which continued to use the country’s broadly defined, restrictive press law to stifle independent reporting. For years, Article 11 of the law has been the state’s strongest weapon against the press. The article grants the Interior Ministry the power to suspend any…
While the Mexican press was able to report more freely about government corruption, an increase in criminal defamation charges and government pressure on journalists to reveal their sources cast a pall over the media in 2003. As President Vicente Fox hit the halfway point of his six-year presidency, his chances of transforming the country were…
Moldova has emerged from the Soviet era with many of the problems that plague other states in the region: an ongoing separatist conflict dividing the nation’s ethnic populations, widespread government corruption, financial hardship, and a biased judiciary. Unlike many other former Soviet republics, however, Moldova has neither the natural resources nor the geopolitical importance to…
The multiple suicide bombings that rocked Casablanca on May 16, killing 44 people, triggered a government clampdown on the local media and further dimmed hopes that 40-year-old King Mohammed VI would institute greater press freedoms. In the aftermath of the attacks, the government ordered at least four newspapers closed and detained or imprisoned five journalists.…