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 Travel Writers' Resources | May 2006 
Freedom of the Press Deteriorates in the World and in Europe
 Laurence Girard - Le Monde
The year 2005 will remain the deadliest in ten years for journalists. The account published Wednesday, May 3, by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on the occasion of the sixteenth annual International Press Freedom Day, hardly makes one optimistic.
According to that organization, 63 journalists and 5 media collaborators were killed in 2005. They also count 807 interpellations and 1,300 aggressions or threats to which reporters around the world were victim. RSF, which is publishing an album of photos devoted to Gilles Caron's work (152 pages, 8,90 euros), also deems that "close to a third of the world's population lives in a country where freedom of the press does not exist."
The beginning of the year 2005 was marked by the kidnapping of Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun. Libération's special envoy and her associate were released in June, after five months of detention. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq in March 2003, 88 media professionals have been killed there, including 24 in 2005. Twelve reporters or guides have been killed since the beginning of this year, like Koussai Kahdban, an Iraqi journalist killed April 22. Three are presently being held hostage.
Not far from there, in Lebanon, journalists live in fear of car bomb attacks. Samir Kassir and Gebrane Tueni, two contributors to the daily An-Nahar newspaper, were killed that way in 2005 and the star presenter of television channel LBC, May Chidiac, seriously mutilated. The Near East remains the most dangerous part of the world for journalists, according to RSF.
In Asia, a gap is growing between different countries. Those where authoritarian regimes are in power continue to suffer from censorship. That's the case in North Korea, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, where King Guyanendra multiplied his attempts to prohibit the circulation and broadcast of news by independent media the last few weeks. In China, freedom of the press is regularly flouted. Seven journalists were killed in the Philippines in 2005.
On the other hand, India reinforces its attachment to pluralism in news and information. In the Pacific, New Zealand regularly comes in at the head of those countries most respectful of the media.
Secrecy of Sources
RSF also considers that the gap is deepening in Europe, where the situation worsened in 2005. This deterioration is due above all to Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. Five journalists were murdered in Europe, including two in Russia. In Western Europe, RSF mentions the peculiar situation in Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi concurrently held the functions of head of state and owner of the media group Mediaset. The organization mentions aggressions against journalists in France during the suburban riots, as well as the many attacks on the principle of protection of journalistic sources - even though that principle is recognized by the European Court for Human Rights.
These attacks against the secrecy of sources, a principle that benefits investigatory journalism, also affect the United States and Canada. More generally in America, even though freedom of the press is officially recognized in all countries but Cuba, the situation remains difficult, particularly in Colombia and Mexico. Seven journalists were killed in 2005 on that continent.
In Africa, the impunity enjoyed by a number of authors of aggression against journalists is at the heart of the problem. One demonstration: the investigation opened after the disappearance of Guy-André Kieffer in August 2004 in the Ivory Coast has yet to produce any results.
RSF Denounces 37 "Predators Against Press Freedom"
Le Figaro (with Agence France-Presse)
The organization added five new names to its list this year.
In its report published for the 16th annual World Press Freedom Day, "Reporters sans frontiers" (RSF) denounces "37 predators against freedom of the press," among which are numerous political, official and armed groups.
RSF, which established this list in 2001, added five new names to it this year: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the armed Tamil groups of Sri Lanka, head of Colombian paramilitaries Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, and head of the Colombian guerrilla movement Raul Reyes.
As Far as Murdering Journalists
"Whether President, Minister, King, Supreme Guide, head of a guerrilla movement, or leader of a criminal organization, these predators against press freedom have the power to imprison, kidnap, torture, and sometimes even murder journalists," the report notes.
Thirty-two other "predators" still figure on the black list, among whom are: Cuban President Fidel Castro, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the North Korean Workers' Party Kim Jong-Il, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bachar el-Assad.
Translation: t r u t h o u t French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher. |
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