Journalists in Latin America continue to be the victims of murders, threats and harassment when investigating sensitive subjects such as corruption and drug trafficking. Government persecution and legal actions also hinder the work of the press, which nevertheless continues its unyielding battle for freedom of information.

In the Middle East and North Africa, there are a growing number of independent newspapers that do not shy away from criticising the authorities and questioning the lack of democracy. Nonetheless, the general media scene is plagued by strict government control and legal action taken against anyone who dares question the regime in place.

More and more journalists in sub-Saharan Africa are prosecuted and jailed on charges of “endangering state security,” whereas harsh repression through “insult laws” and criminal defamation continues. Threats, attacks and violence target those who report the inconvenient truth, whether it is linked to the handling of a conflict situation, abuse of power or personal misconduct.

Hostility toward independent and opposition media and attempts to silence them could again be seen in various parts of Europe and Central Asia. Spurious extremism and anti-state criminal charges remained an effective tool to hinder critical reporting.

Asia is home to some of the most repressive regimes in the world, which suppress all dissident voices and forbid any form of independent media. Simmering ethnic, political and religious tensions exist in a number of countries.

AMERICAS

Journalists killed = United States (1), El Salvador (1), Honduras (1), Guatemala (1), Paraguay (1), Colombia (3) TOTAL = 8

Journalists in Latin America continue to be the victims of murders, threats and harassment when investigating sensitive subjects such as corruption and drug trafficking. Government persecution and legal actions also hinder the work of the press, which nevertheless continues its unyielding battle for freedom of information. A number of media professionals have been killed in the region in the past six months.

In the United States, The Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in broad daylight as he walked to work on the morning of 2 August. Bailey had been working on a story about the financial status of a bakery, Your Black Muslim Bakery, which had filed bankruptcy in October 2006. Bailey had also reported on alleged statutory rape accusations against Yusuf Bey, the founder of the bakery, who died from cancer in 2003. A 19-year-old handyman at a local bakery confessed to the murder, explaining he was angered by Bailey’s negative coverage of the bakery and its staff.

Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, the only known journalist imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, has been held at Guantanamo since June 2002, after he was picked up at the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in December 2001, while covering the U.S.-led fight to oust the Taliban. The U.S. alleges that he worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels and that he assisted al-Qaeda and extremist figures. He has been held on the basis of secret evidence; he has not been convicted or even charged with a crime. According to Al-Haj’s lawyer, the U.S. military, in a recent hearing, cited the cameraman’s professional training for the Qatar-based satellite news channel as evidence of involvement in terrorism. Al-Haj has been on hunger strike since early January.

On 16 October, a House of Representatives vote approved, by a very large majority, a proposed Free Flow of Information Act that would protect journalists from having to reveal their confidential sources to federal courts. The proposed law, known as a "shield law," grants journalists "qualified privilege" - not an absolute one - as regards the protection of their sources. In other words, they would still have to identify their sources to federal courts in certain circumstances. Protection of sources would not apply in federal courts to any representative or agent of a foreign power and to any organisation designated as a foreign or local terrorist organisation. 33 states for the union currently recognize the right of journalists to professional confidentiality.

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on 23 October the proposed Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) that would prevent U.S. Internet sector companies from cooperating with repressive governments. The bill would also ban these companies from providing information enabling users to be identified, except in cases in which the law is being legitimately applied. This, however, would be decided by the U.S. justice department and not the companies. U.S. companies Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft have been repeatedly criticized for agreeing to censor themselves in China. Cisco Systems is accused of providing China with online censorship technology. At least four cyber-dissidents, including Wang Xianing and 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom Shi Tao, have been convicted and jailed because of information supplied by Yahoo! to the Chinese authorities. The bill will now go before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Central America represents a wide variety of settings with regards to press freedom. While the situation is good or satisfactory in countries such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, Cuba continues to be a black spot on the press freedom map with 27 journalists serving lengthy prison sentences in harsh conditions.

The September killing of radio reporter Salvador Sánchez Roque in El Salvador led to the arrest three weeks later of the presumed killer, a gang member who had previously issued death threats against the journalist because of his reporting on the criminal activities of the gang.

Honduras, one of the most insecure countries in Central America due mainly to corruption and organised crime, saw the killing of radio journalist Carlos Salgado in October. He was shot at close range by two unidentified gunmen when he was leaving work. No one has been arrested for the murder which is believed to be linked to the station’s coverage of official corruption.

In Guatemala, a country equally plagued by violence, the murder of photographer Jorge Alejandro Castañeda Martínez in July has not yet been solved and it remains unclear whether the killing was linked to his work.

The media in Mexico remain a selected target of violent attacks, with the October murder of three newspaper vendors of the El Imparcial del Istmo newspaper sparking strong protests in the Mexican media community. The killings were probably a reprisal by drug traffickers for the paper’s coverage of organised crime. Other journalists were attacked and threatened in the past six months, and in August radio host Alfredo Fernández Portillas was shot for times in the abdomen by unidentified people, but survived the attack.

In South America, the media scene in Venezuela presents an ever increasing reason of concern, with a number of already implemented as well as planned future legal restrictions on press freedom by President Chavez’ regime. The country’s criminal code is currently being revised with one of the aims being tighter control on independent broadcast media. The government is also in the process of setting up a national plan, which would turn media into the “social property” of Venezuela.

In Brazil and Peru, the conviction of two persons responsible for journalist killings was a landmark in the combat against the culture of impunity that reigns throughout the region. In Peru, President García Pérez also committed to safeguarding press freedom and expressed his support of a national court which would hear cases involving crimes against journalists and violations of freedom of speech.

Radio journalist Tito Alberto Palma Godoy was killed in Paraguay in August. Prior to his murder, Godoy had been reporting on sensitive subjects such as drug trafficking and political corruption, and was reportedly shot by men wearing military uniforms.

In Colombia, the September killing of news director Javier Darío Arroyave and the October killings of photographer Carlos Alberto Jamarillo and his assistant Julio Cesar Garcia, showed that despite the decrease in journalist murders in recent years, they are still the likely targets of violence. A number of journalists have fled Colombia in the past months and the remaining ones often succumb to self-censorship out of fear for their lives and safety.

THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Journalists Killed = Iraq (15) TOTAL = 15

In the Middle East and North Africa, there are a growing number of independent newspapers that do not shy away from criticising the authorities and questioning the lack of democracy. Nonetheless, the general media scene is plagued by strict government control and legal action taken against anyone who dares question the regime in place. The bloggers community has taken on a more important role in informing the citizens, a role which continues to gain importance despite legal actions taken against them in a number of countries. The war in Iraq has again claimed numerous victims among journalists.

In Morocco, the independent press has flourishes for several years already, despite government efforts to silence these critical voices. The authorities react in various ways to curtail this recently gained outspokenness. At times, they use direct censorship through simply banning publications. Other times, indirect pressure is used to warn off advertisers and printers from cooperating with specific newspapers. In special cases, they have resorted to strict legislation protecting the monarchy and the national integrity of the Moroccan territory. Ahmed Benchemsi, publisher of the groundbreaking news magazine Tel Quel (As It Is) is currently awaiting the trial in a case where he is being charged for questioning King Mohammed VI’s commitment to democracy.

Tunisian President Bel Ali maintains his iron grip on the media in Tunisia, including relentless harassment of the few independent voices that exist in the country. Among the actions against the dissident voices undertaken by the authorities in the past six months was the repeated physical attacks on the Tunisian Al-Jazeera correspondent by plain-clothes policemen, the eviction of the opposition newspaper Al-Mawkif from the offices it had been using since 1994 and the extension of the internal exile of journalist Abdallah Zouari.

In Egypt, a series of reports questioning President Mubarak’s health led to a heavy crackdown on the country’s independent press in September. No less than 11 journalists received prison sentences in a series of court cases that sparked international protests and caused the independent press in Egypt to not publish any papers on 7 October in a protest against what is considered to be an effort to muzzle the free press so that President Mubarak can pass on the power to his son in the upcoming presidential elections without any protest being heard.

The ongoing conflict between the Hamas and Fatah factions in the Palestinian Authority Territories has placed the media under enormous economic constraints. Furthermore, media outlets are forced to be pro-Fatah in the West Bank and pro-Hamas in Gaza to be allowed to work safely, thus compromising their objectivity and critical reporting.

The Gulf countries have seen little or no change in the area of press freedom in the past six months. Most of them have a poor press freedom record, with government control over the press being extremely rigid and the media exercising widespread self-censorship.

In Iraq, the number of journalists targeted and killed has declined in comparison with the first six months of the year, however, the figures still remain alarming. In the past six months, 15 media employees were killed in Iraq, which brings the annual total to 44. In September, the Iraqi Media Safety Group (IMSG) was created by Iraqi journalists, an initiative welcomed by the international press freedom community, in particular since the group was created by Iraqi journalists themselves rather than an international organisation.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Journalists killed: Democratic Republic of Congo (2), Somalia (4) TOTAL = 6

More and more journalists in sub-Saharan Africa are prosecuted and jailed on charges of “endangering state security,” whereas harsh repression through “insult laws” and criminal defamation continues. Threats, attacks and violence target those who report the inconvenient truth, whether it is linked to the handling of a conflict situation, abuse of power or personal misconduct.

Presidential and parliamentary elections in Mali this year saw a level of press repression unprecedented in at least ten years. Five publishers and journalists were jailed in June in the aftermath of an article about a high school essay assignment concerning an imaginary presidential sex scandal. They were convicted of insulting President Amadou Toumani Toure and sentenced to prison terms and fines.

The government crackdown on media coverage of a rebellion of nomadic Tuaregs in northern Niger, including a ban on live debates discussing the conflict, a month-long suspension of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and a three-month suspension of the bi-monthly Aïr Info, has forced journalists to censor coverage. In this context, two prominent journalists were jailed for “endangering state security.”

In Chad, which is increasingly affected by the ongoing conflict in neighboring Sudan, the state of emergency was decreed for the second time this year in October. This implied censorship of the country’s media in the form of restricted access to conflict areas and restrictions to report on subjects such as child soldiers, opposition figures and different government policies.

Brutal repression of the press and other independent voices in Gambia make the country one of Africa’s worst places to be a journalist. The Gambian government has exerted pressure on independent newspapers, jailed journalists without due process, forced others into exile, and brought criminal charges against the leadership of the Gambia Press Union.

With more than a dozen publishers and journalists held incommunicado without charge and trial since the September 2001 closure of all the privately owned media, Eritrea remains among Africa’s most repressive regimes toward the media and the largest journalist jailer. Paulos Kidane of the Amharic-language service of state-owned Eri-TV and radio Dimtsi Hafash died in June while trying to flee on foot across the border into Sudan. Arrested at the end of 2006, Kidane and nine other state media journalists were reportedly tortured to reveal the passwords to their e-mail accounts.

In neighbouring Ethiopia, several journalists and publishers of now-defunct Amharic-language weeklies have been released on conditional pardon over the summer. They had received heavy prison sentences, including life prison sentences, on anti-state charges in connection with critical coverage of the government during the deadly unrest in the aftermath of disputed parliamentary elections in 2005. Journalists are regularly prosecuted on charges of “treason,” “conspiracy” to overthrow the government, or defamation.

In Somalia, journalists remain caught in the standoff between the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government and suspected Islamist fighters. Two prominent journalists of leading independent broadcaster HornAfrik Media and a reporter of Radio Banadir were killed in separate attacks in August. In October, the acting manager of the independent station Radio Shabelle was murdered outside his home in Mogadishu. Shabelle, considered one of the leading stations in Somalia, has been harassed, threatened, and attacked by both government security forces and insurgents due to its critical reporting of the ongoing violence in the capital city. Eight radio journalists have been killed in Somalia since the beginning of the year.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, press freedom violations continue unabated. Arbitrary arrests and detentions regularly hit those critical of the government and several broadcasters close to the opposition were raided by government security forces throughout the country. In October, the Information Minister summarily banned 22 private television channels and 16 radio stations for alleged non-compliance to national media laws. The decision reportedly came without notice or legal hearing, as is guaranteed by the Congolese transitional constitution.

On 13 June 2007, Serge Maheshe Kasole, United Nations-sponsored Radio Okapi news editor, was killed. According to witnesses, two men shot Maheshe at point-blank in the chest and legs, when, with two friends, he was getting into the minivan he usually drives. On 28 August, a Bukavu military tribunal handed down its verdict in the case, sentencing the two main suspects and witnesses - who were also friends of the journalist - to death. In September, the two criminals convicted of shooting Maheshe claimed they had been bribed by the judges to testify that they shot Maheshe at the behest of his two friends.

On 9 August, Patrick Kikuku Wilungula, photojournalist with the Agence Congolaise de Presse (ACP) in North Kivu province and the Kinshasa-based weekly L’Hebdo de l’Est, in Goma, eastern Congo, was shot and killed near his home in Goma by unidentified gunmen.

In Zimbabwe, the Interception of Communications Act adopted in August allows authorities to intercept all phone, Internet, and mail communications. It establishes a state monitoring centre and requires telecommunications providers to install systems “supporting lawful interceptions at all times.” As Zimbabwe tightened restrictions on journalists, more and more sent their reports to international media outlets and online publications based outside the country. The interception of communications foreseen by the law will make journalists more vulnerable.

In Botswana, which enjoys a fairly free press freedom environment, the Tswana Times newspaper in October accused the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) of withdrawing advertisements in the paper following an article critical of the corporation. In Africa, where newspapers are highly dependent on government advertising, such a measure can have disastrous consequences for a media outlet.

EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

Journalists killed: Turkey (1), Kyrgyzstan (1) TOTAL = 2

Hostility toward independent and opposition media and attempts to silence them could again be seen in various parts of Europe and Central Asia. Spurious extremism and anti-state criminal charges remained an effective tool to hinder critical reporting.

In France, the weekly magazine Paris Match lost its appeal before the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, for publishing a photo of the bloodied body of Corsica prefect Claude Erignac gunned down in 1998. The court sided with the family of Erignac which had argued that the photo published on the cover of the magazine was a violation of their right to privacy. Paris Match had turned to the European Court and lodged an appeal on the grounds of freedom of expression after it was ordered by two French courts to publish an apology.

In Germany, the government launched in August a criminal investigation against 17 journalists. They are accused of publishing information from classified documents related to CIA rendition flights and suspected misconduct by the German secret services in Baghdad during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The journalists work for the leading German publications Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and Die Welt.

In Slovenia, serious allegations have been made over the past months that the government and Prime Minister Janez Jansa have been censoring and harassing the news media. The allegations are the subject of a petition signed by more that 500 journalists that claims that the Prime Minister "restricts media freedom" in various ways. The text notably refers to the shares owned by the state in large Slovenian companies that are also co-owners of the media, reportedly allowing changes among chief executive officers, members of supervisory boards and editors-in-chief in most of the major Slovenian media.

In Russia, the upper house of parliament approved in July a package of amendments that expand the definition of extremism to include public discussion of extremism, and give law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that do not comply with the new restrictions. This was the second set of anti-extremist amendments introduced in little over one year. In July 2006, legislation that broadened the definition of extremism to include media criticism of state officials was enacted, despite concerns from media, human rights and political opposition groups.

In July also, Larisa Arap, a journalist and member of the opposition movement United Civil Front, was forcibly hospitalised in Murmansk psychiatric hospital following the publication of an article on the city’s psychiatric clinics. In an article in the United Civil Front newspaper, Arap addressed the issue of violence used by medical staff in the treatment of patients. She was released in late August.

A court in Russia’s west-central republic of Tatarstan convicted in late August five members of a criminal gang in the 2000 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Igor Domnikov. Although officials have claimed several breakthroughs in the investigation of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta newspaper killed in October 2006 in retribution for her reporting, those ultimately responsible remain undetected.

In Belarus, administrative harassment of independent newspapers remains a central tool of President Lukashenko’s repressive machinery and recent government initiatives have aimed at restricting free expression on the Internet.

In Kyrgyzstan, threats against journalists multiplied amid tension between ruling and opposition leaders. Alisher Saipov, editor of the independent Uzbek-language weekly Siyosat and contributor to several regional news outlets was shot dead in October in the southern city of Osh. Saipov had interviewed members of the banned Islamic groups Hizb-ut Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

With seven journalists behind bars, Azerbaijan is the leading jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia. Among them, Eynulla Fatullayev, editor-in-chief of the now disrupted independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündelik Azebaycan, is currently serving a two-and-a-half years prison sentence on charges of libelling and insulting Azerbaijanis and is facing a possible second sentence of 12 years. The conviction of Fatullayev came amid the Azerbaijani government’s growing hostility toward independent and opposition media and raised serious concerns about their future and about the safety of journalists in the country.

In Turkey, journalists and writers continue to be charged and condemned under the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish penal code for insulting for “insulting Turkish identity,” including the son of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead on 19 January in front of his newspaper offices, Agos.

ASIA

Journalists killed: Burma (1), Nepal (2), Pakistan (6), Afghanistan (1), Philippines (2) TOTAL = 12

Asia is home to some of the most repressive regimes in the world, which suppress all dissident voices and forbid any form of independent media. Simmering ethnic, political and religious tensions exist in a number of countries.

Among the commitments made by China in their bid for the Olympic Games, was the promise to improve the human rights situation in the country. Less than a year left before the Games are to begin, it seems that the Chinese have everything but kept their promise. 29 journalists are currently serving prison sentences in China, in most cases for reporting on subjects deemed controversial by the authorities. Internet restrictions are still severe, with limited access to several thousand websites. The working rules for foreign journalists who will travel to the country to cover the Olympics remain vague, allowing for different interpretations of what they can and cannot cover. Press freedom and human rights organisations all over the world are protesting the fact that the Chinese are allowed to pursue the preparations of an event which in its Charter states: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.” Every year, thousands of people are executed in China and all forms of dissident voices are silenced. The press freedom situation in the country reflects an extremely poor human rights and freedom of expression record.

In Burma and North Korea, the press freedom situation remains grim, with the recent crackdown in Burma showing the measures the Burmese authorities are ready to take in order to hinder a free flow of information in their country. During the massive protests in October, the authorities blocked access to all internet servers and barred the mobile phone networks in order to prevent the outside world from learning what was going on in the country. This failed largely because of courageous Burmese citizens who filmed and reported on the attacks through clandestine networks, which allowed for the information to reach the outside world. The cold-blooded murder of the Japanese AFP photographer Kenji Nagai was aired on TV networks and internet sites worldwide, showing the brutality of the Burmese authorities.

In Nepal, where democracy has been partially restored since the internal crisis in 2005 which led to the end of King Gyanendra’s direct rule in April 2006, the media are again able to function freely in the country. Despite that, they remain the victims of the continued conflict between Maoist guerrillas and government troops. Attacks on media outlets are commonplace, as well as kidnappings and beatings of journalists. In September, newspaper reporter Sanker Panthi was murdered when on his way to cover the destruction by locals of a Young Communist League office.

In Pakistan, six journalists have been killed in the past six months. One of them was killed in the bomb attacks that occurred upon the return on former Prime Minister Bhutto to Pakistan, and at least twelve others were injured. The other five journalists that were killed since June were in three cases murdered by unknown assailants, and in two cases killed when on duty.

All journalists who cover sensitive subjects in Afghanistan run the risk of getting killed at any moment. The latest victim was Zakia Zaki, the director of a radio station and a leading figure among independent journalists in Afghanistan, who was gunned down in front of her young son in the family bedroom in June. She had received several death threats before the killing. In October, Reza Khan of Kabul was sentenced to death and executed for the murders of four journalists in 2001: two reporters for Reuters, one for Correire della Serra and one for el Mundo.

Radio journalists Geruncio Mondejar and Vicente Sumalpong are the latest victims of the culture of violence found within the Philippines. Impunity continues to prevail in the island republic, and violence against the media and the ongoing reluctance of the government to bring those guilty to justice could have intractable consequences for press freedom.

In the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka, journalists continue to pay a high price. The country’s media are targeted both by the authorities, paramilitary groups and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Journalists are regularly victims or death threats, physical attacks and government restrictions. Self-censorship has increased in the past six months and media professionals are fleeing the country. The press freedom is at high risk in Sri Lanka, which will ultimately backfire on the democratic process which is so badly needed to restore peace in the country.