RIGHTS-MEDIA: 24 Journalists Killed in 2000, 87 in Prison

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 2001 (IPS) - ¡ Two dozen journalists were killed in the line of duty last year, while another 87 found themselves in prison at year’s end, the apparent victims of retaliation by governments which found their work too dangerous or too embarrassing, according to the latest in the annual series of reports on attacks on the press put out by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The numbers, however, represent an actual improvement over recent years. In 1999, 34 media professionals were killed, while the number of journalists held in prison has declined steadily from a high of 185 who were held at the end of 1996, according to the report.

But the improvement offers no grounds for complacency, the report stresses, especially because new threats to journalists continue to emerge, even as older ones persist.

“In the early 1980s, in places like Argentina and Chile,” according to the report, “military dictatorships were generally responsible for kidnapping and ‘disappearing’ independent journalists,” the report says. “Today, in many cases, it is not the strength of the state but rather its weakness that creates the danger.”

“Criminal gangs or insurgent factions simply eliminate their critics, knowing there will be no consequences.”

Non-state actors were behind killings of journalists in Colombia, Russia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and possibly Haiti and Mozambique, among others, during 2000, according to the report.

The 545-page report, ‘Attacks on the Press in 2000,’ details a total of 605 cases of media repression in 131 countries. In addition to killings and imprisonments, the report covers cases of assault, bureaucratic harassment, and censorship.

In addition to the relative reduction in the number of killings and imprisonments, the reports underlines a number of other trends.

Of the 24 journalists who were killed for their work, at least 16 were murdered, and, in all but two instances, those who ordered the murders remained at large as the report went to press. The pattern of impunity, according to the report, is particularly acute in Russia, where three were killed last year, and Colombia, which added three more journalists in 2000 to the death toll of 31 who have been killed there over the past decade.

The decline in the number of journalists in prison last year has made it clear that international protests have made governments more reluctant to throw reporters in jail. But, according to the report, governments in Eastern Europe and Latin America, in particular, appear to be turning to “more subtle methods to control the press” ¡ including punitive tax laws, libel suits, and advertising boycotts.

Journalists are increasingly using the Internet and other electronic technologies to circumvent restrictions and censorship, but that has not made them immune from attacks.

In Ukraine, for example, Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze was abducted and apparently murdered at the behest of top state officials, while in Mozambique, reporter Carlos Cardoso, who distributed his investigative articles by fax, was slain by gunmen who, according to prosecutors, were hired by business interests.

In addition, several of the 22 Chinese journalists in prison at the end of last year were punished precisely because of their use of the Internet to disseminate information.

The most dangerous countries for journalists last year included Russia, Colombia, and Sierra Leone. Three reporters were killed in each of those countries. Of the 15 other reporters slain last year, Bangladesh and the Philippines each claimed two victims, while the rest were killed in Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Uruguay and Ukraine.

The report notes that 20 other reporters were killed around the world last year, but that the circumstances of their deaths are still being investigated to determine whether they were killed in the line of work.

The news was not all bad in 2000. In Turkey, for example, IPS reporter Nadire Mater and her publisher were acquitted of insulting the military in a highly publicised case, while the number of journalists held in prison at the end of the year fell to the lowest level in more than a decade ¡ 14.

In addition, two so-called “Enemies of the Press” ¡ former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ¡ were ousted from office, while another, Foday Sankoh, who headed a rebel group in Sierra Leone which deliberately targeted journalists during the civil war there, was arrested. The CPJ publishes a list of ten “Enemies” each year who “exhibit particular zeal in the ruthless suppression of press freedom”.

On the other hand, a number of “Enemies” ¡ remain in power, their zeal undiminished, while other leaders may now be vying for a place on the list.

Of particular concern, according to the report, are the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who appears to be behind a conservative onslaught that has featured the banning of some 30 publications and the arrest and prosecution of some of the country’s most outstanding journalists.

CPJ also cited Jiang Zemin, China’s president; Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali, president of Tunisia; Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan; Cuban President Fidel Castro; Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos; and Mahathir Mohamed, the prime minister of Malaysia as “Enemies”.

At Monday’s release, CPJ officials suggested that the leaders of Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela also may be headed for the list next year.

In a special section on the situation in Russia, the report charged that “the ascendancy of President Vladimir Putin brought an alarming assault on press freedom in Russia”, highlighted by “censorship in Chechnya, orchestrated legal cases against powerful media barons, and sweeping powers of surveillance (for) the security services”.

At Monday’s release, CPJ also featured Ray Choto, chief reporter for the Zimbabwe weekly ‘The Standard’ who was jailed and tortured in 1999, along with his editor Mark Chavanduka, for publishing a report about a coup plot against President Robert Mugabe.

In introducing Choto, CPJ director Ann Cooper noted the recent bombing in Harare of the ‘Daily News’ and the deportation of two foreign reporters from Zimbabwe. “The independent press is increasingly under attack by the government,” she said.

The report charged that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has used appearances on radio and television to marginalise and attack the news media. “So far, the (Chavez’) Bolivarian revolution has been great copy. But if all revolutions eat their young, Venezuelan journalists had better hope that Chavez doesn’t get too hungry,” the report says.

RIGHTS-MEDIA: 24 Journalists Killed in 2000, 87 in Prison

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 2001 (IPS) - ¡ Two dozen journalists were killed in the line of duty last year, while another 87 found themselves in prison at year’s end, the apparent victims of retaliation by governments which found their work too dangerous or too embarrassing, according to the latest in the annual series of reports on attacks on the press put out by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
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