Nearly a decade after the United States restored Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in an attempt to encourage democracy there, Haitian journalists continued to face routine threats, harassment, and physical violence, while perpetrators of these attacks were rarely punished.
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 Israeli army continued to imperil reporters and restrict their work in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, making the area one of the most complicated and dangerous assignments for journalists in the Middle East. During 2003, two journalists were shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fire. Others encountered harsh treatment at…
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…
President Nursultan Nazarbayev continued his intense persecution of Kazakhstan’s independent media in 2003, silencing government critics and sidelining opposition to his autocratic policies and control over the country’s billion-dollar oil and gas industries. Anyone who criticizes the president, his family, and his associates can be criminally prosecuted, and the government’s growing persecution of the media…
The December 2002 electoral victory of President Mwai Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) brought high hopes for a new era of democracy, economic recovery, and respect for human rights after the 24-year rule of former President Daniel arap Moi and his KANU party. However, the euphoric atmosphere quickly dissipated.