Angola’s rulers remained powerless to remedy longstanding woes such as appalling child mortality and rampant corruption, but government troops meddled in civil wars in the two Congos and carried out bloody forays into Zambia, allegedly in search of fighters from the rebel UNITA organization. As the country’s basic social indicators sink ever lower on the…
The family of Prime Minister Lester B. Bird has long dominated Antigua and Barbuda’s broadcast media, but the outcome of a four-year court battle that forced Bird’s government to allow a private radio station to broadcast has driven a wedge in the family’s monopoly. Winston and Samuel Derrick, editor and publisher, respectively, of The Daily…
Wile Argentina fell deeper into economic crisis during 2001, and President Fernando de la Rúa resigned in disgrace as a result, the media worked largely unhindered. But the worsening economy hurt advertising and sales, and the Supreme Court dealt damaging blows to press freedom.
ARMENIA Widespread poverty, polarized politics, and flawed legislation kept the media at the mercy of government officials and wealthy sponsors during 2001. Libel remained a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment, though it was not used against journalists during the year.
Although President Heydar Aliyev claimed to be the “guarantor of freedom of speech and the press in Azerbaijan,” his government continued to crack down on independent and opposition media while suppressing public criticism. Journalists who dared to criticize officials suffered harassment, defamation lawsuits, imprisonment, and physical assaults. Publications faced financial pressure and closures, as well…
Major political reforms augured well for press freedom in the tiny Persian Gulf country of Bahrain, which was plagued by social tension and political unrest for part of the 1990s. In a mid-February referendum, voters overwhelmingly approved Emir Sheikh Hamed Bin Issa al-Khalifa’s national charter, which seeks to transform the country into a constitutional monarchy…
In 2001, the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International ranked Bangladesh the most corrupt country in the world. The almost complete collapse of law and order in the country was seen as one of the prime reasons behind the fall from power of the Awami League. The year began with a brutal attack on a young…
President Aleksandr Lukashenko continued his assault on the independent and opposition press in 2001, and he managed to cling to power in September 9 presidential elections amid charges of human rights violations and extensive electoral fraud. Throughout the year, independent publications faced harassment, censorship, seizures, and closures for criticizing the regime. Little progress was made…
In March, President Mathieu Kerekou won a second term in office by a landslide amid allegations of fraud from the opposition. Press coverage of the candidates became a major issue in the months preceding the vote. In an early January television address, Timothé Adanlin, head of the High Authority for Audio-Visual Communications (HAAC), cautioned reporters…
On August 6, Former military dictator Hugo Banzer, who was suffering from advanced cancer, resigned his post as president and handed over power to Vice President Jorge Quiroga Ramírez, who will head the government for the remainder of the five-year presidential term, which ends in August 2002. Despite widespread social and political unrest, the Bolivian…