THE EXPLOSION OF VIOLENCE THAT BEGAN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES on September 29 has been unsparing of journalists, reinforcing the West Bank and Gaza Strip’s reputation as among the world’s most hazardous beats. Reasons why included the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israeli security forces, and militant Jewish settlers. While no conclusive evidence exists that the…
SOLDIERS UNDER THE COMMAND OF ROBERT GUEI, the retired general who seized power from an elected government on Christmas Eve, 1999, terrorized Côte d’Ivoire during their 10 months in power. As part of a general pattern of human rights abuses, they raided newsrooms at will, seized reporters’ equipment, banned news organizations, and forced journalists to…
IN A MAJOR VICTORY FOR THE JAMAICAN PRESS, the government agreed to amend a new law that made it a crime to report on certain government investigations. The government of Prime Minister Percival Patterson first introduced the so-called Corruption (Prevention) Bill as part of its efforts to bring national legislation into compliance with the 1996…
IN HIS FIRST TWO YEARS ON THE THRONE, KING ABDULLAH II has spoken out in favor of strengthening press freedom and modernizing the media. In a February speech, the king advocated “transparency in our society, because we have nothing to fear.” The Jordanian press has seen several positive developments under King Abdullah’s reign, including the…
IN AN APRIL 19 SPEECH, PRESIDENT NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV called for increased state oversight of the press-even though his decade in power was already marked by rigid control of independent expression. The National Security Committee (KNB, successor to the KGB) regularly harassed independent and opposition media last year. Journalists also faced countless defamation lawsuits filed by…
EVEN AS KENYAN POLITICS WERE DOMINATED BY CALLS for constitutional and legal reform, the government introduced restrictive legislation governing the press. In May, the government of President Daniel arap Moi proposed an amendment to the Books and Newspapers Act that would have required new publications to post a bond of one million shillings (US$13,459) as…
WHILE THE PRESS IN KYRGYZSTAN HAS ENJOYED A REPUTATION for greater freedom than in any other Central Asian republic, that freedom has in fact been eroding since the mid-1990s. In 2000, pressure on the independent media greatly intensified in advance of parliamentary and presidential elections. Many observers believe President Askar Akayev is resorting to more…
CELEBRATIONS OF A QUARTER CENTURY OF COMMUNIST RULE, a wave of bomb attacks, and signs of internal dissent all contributed to foreign media interest in Laos in 2000, which in turn spurred the government to reassert its control of information and the press. In July, Laotian viewers were able to tune in live Thai television…
LEBANESE JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN NOTED FOR THEIR FREEWHEELING STYLE, but the freedom and independence that characterized Lebanon’s media before the 15-year civil war have yet to return, for reasons that include censorship, self-censorship, archaic media laws, and occasional state intimidation. Nevertheless, an important taboo was breached in March, before Israel’s anticipated withdrawal from south Lebanon,…
ALTHOUGH LESOTHO’S CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, it also provides for the protection of the “reputations, rights, and freedoms” of individuals. Criminal defamation statues reamin on the books, making independent journalism a difficult and expensive career. Throughout the year, Lesotho struggled to cope with the economic impact of large-scale retrenchments in the South African mining…