WORST YEAR FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Tiscali Europe, UK
Feb 6 2007
In its latest press freedom index, Paris-based NGO Reporters Without
Borders (RWB) says that a record number of journalists and media
workers were killed or thrown in jail around the world in 2006.
The survey, published on 1 February, provides a snapshot of press
freedom in 98 countries. This year – once again – it
highlights North Korea, Eritrea, Cuba and Turkmenistan as the worst
offenders. At the same time, however, the report slams an "alarming
lack of interest (and sometimes even failure) by democratic countries
in defending the values they are supposed to incarnate".
Highlighting the case of Denmark and the inflammatory cartoons of the
Prophet Mohamed, RWB condemns other European states for standing by
impassively while journalists and embassies were attacked.
In Western Europe, philosopher Robert Redeker was threatened in
southern France for a critical article he wrote on Islam, while a
leading opera house in Germany cancelled performances of Mozart’s
opera Idomeneo for fear of Muslim reaction. Other concerns were a
new law in France banning denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide and
Turkey’s frequent use of article 301 of its criminal code to
prosecute journalists and intellectuals mentioning the genocide.
Some five journalists were murdered in the former Soviet bloc
countries in 2006, including leading investigative journalist Anna
Politkovskaya. This, says RWB, shows "the problems this region has
in shaking off its authoritarian past".
In its list of the most deadly places for journalists to work, the
report finds that 65 media workers were killed in Iraq and almost a
dozen murdered in Mexico. Kidnappings and imprisonment of journalists
remained also remained worryingly high in the Middle East and Latin
America in general. RWB also says that African governments, above
all Gambia and Burkina Faso, are sheltering the killers of several
journalists.
Finally, over in Asia, 16 media workers were killed and another 328
arrested. Some 517 were physically attacked or threatened and 478 media
outlets censored in 2006. "Censorship is very widespread and complete
freedom to speak and write is rare in Asia," says RWB. China is also
cracking down on cyber-dissidents and, with at least 60 people detained
around the world for criticism of their governments, it is clearly
being copied by among others Vietnam, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Iran.
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