Reporters Without Borders
31 December 2006
PRESS FREEDOM IN 2006
81 journalists killed - the deadliest year since 1994
56 kidnapped, mostly in Iraq and the Gaza Strip
In 2006
- 81 journalists and 32 media assistants were killed
- at least 871 were arrested
- 1,472 physically attacked or threatened
- 56 kidnapped
- and 912 media outlets censored
In 2005:
ß 63 journalists and 5 media assistants were killed
ß at least 807 were arrested
ß 1,308 physically attacked or threatened
ß and 1,006 media outlets censored
The deadliest year since 1994
At least 81 journalists were killed in 2006 in 21
countries while doing their job or for expressing
their opinion, the highest annual toll since
1994, when 103 died (half of them in the Rwanda
genocide, about 20 in the Algerian civil war and
a dozen in former Yugoslavia). 32 media
assistants (fixers, drivers, translators,
technicians, security staff) were also killed
2006 (only five in 2005).
Iraq was the world's most dangerous country for
the media for the fourth year running, with 64
journalists and media assistants killed. Since
fighting began in 2003, 139 journalists have been
killed there, more than twice the number in the
20-year Vietnam War (63 killed between 1955 and
1975). About 90% of the victims were Iraqis.
Investigations were very rare and none were
completed.
Unlike other organisations, Reporters Without
Borders includes journalists in its death count
only when it is certain that their deaths are
linked to their work as journalists. Dozens of
other cases have not been included because
investigators have not yet determined the motives
or because it is clear that they were not related
to the issue of press freedom.
The second most dangerous country was Mexico,
which also moved ahead of Colombia as Latin
America's deadliest place for the media. Nine
journalists were killed there in 2006 because
they were investigating drug trafficking or
reporting on violent social unrest. US cameraman
Brad Will was shot dead in late October in
turbulent Oaxaca state, where strikes often
degenerated into armed clashes, and other
journalists were injured there.
The body of journalist Enrique Pera Quintanilla,
editor of the monthly Dos Caras, una verdad, was
found by a roadside in the northern state of
Chihuahua in August. The paper specialised in
reporting on unsolved murders and drug
trafficking.
The situation in The Philippines was grim too,
with six journalists killed (compared with seven
in 2005). Fernando Batul, a commentator with the
radio station dyPR, was shot dead in late May as
he was going to work on Palawan Island, southwest
of Manila. The authorities said he was killed
because he had criticised a brutal policeman, who
was subsequently arrested and will shortly be
tried. The March 2005 killers of anti-corruption
columnist Marlene Esperat were jailed for life.
But those punished were only triggermen and those
who ordered the killings are still walking free.
However, in a country where impunity is the rule,
the trial and sentences were a good precedent.
Three journalists were killed in Russia, making
21 since President Vladimir Putin came to power
in March 2000. The murder in October of reporter
Anna Politkovskaya, of the weekly Novaya Gazeta
and a Chechnya expert, was a reminder that even
the best-known journalists with major
international support do not escape such deadly
violence. Pressed by democratic countries to find
and punish the culprits, the government has
assigned a team of 150 detectives to the case.
Press freedom shrank further in neighbouring
Turkmenistan, with the crackdown on independent
media reaching a peak in September when the
family of Radio Free Europe correspondent
Ogulsapar Muradova announced she had died in
prison, three months after being jailed. Despite
repeated demands by the European Union, the
authorities did not investigate her death.
In Lebanon, a photographer and a TV technician
were killed by Israeli bombing during the war
with Israel. A dozen journalists were injured or
wounded during the fighting in the summer.
Violent election clashes
Over 1,400 physical attacks or threats were
recorded by Reporters Without Borders in 2006,
which was another record. Many of them were
during election campaigns in various countries.
Attacks on journalists in Bangladesh, already
routine, became daily at the end of the year, a
few weeks before key parliamentary elections, and
were carried out by security forces and political
party supporters.
A dozen countries in the Americas held important
national elections during the year. Reporters
Without Borders had registered more than a dozen
physical attacks on journalists and another dozen
threats to them in Peru by early March, a month
before presidential elections,. In Brazil, a
daily paper's offices were ransacked on election
day by supporters of a local politician in the
southern town of Marilia.
Supporters of the two main presidential
candidates in the Democratic Republic of Congo -
outgoing President Joseph Kabila and his rival
Jean-Pierre Bemba - regularly attacked
journalists they accused of sympathising with the
"enemy camp." A visiting foreign reporter was
deported in both Uganda and Ethiopia at election
time.
Belarus cracked down on journalists and regime
opponents a few days after President Alexander
Lukashenko's reelection in March, and a dozen
local and foreign reporters were physically
attacked, including Olga Ulevich, Russian
correspondent of the newspaper Komsomolskaya
Pravda, whose nose was broken when plainclothes
police beat her up.
Censorship and arrests still very common
Cases of censorship were slightly down - 912
against 1,006 in 2005, when Nepal had the worst
record. The ceasefire there in mid-2006 gave the
media a break, with the release of imprisoned
journalists and many local radio stations able to
freely broadcast again.
Thailand recorded the most cases of censorship.
After a military coup in September, more than 300
community radio stations were shut down along
with several Internet websites. Things returned
to normal after a few weeks.
It was impossible to get exact information on
censorship in China, Burma and North Korea,
countries where blanket measures were taken
against the media, affecting dozens and even
hundreds of outlets at the same time.
The Internet was tightly controlled in some
countries. Reporters Without Borders issued a
list in November of 13 "enemies of the Internet"
(Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North
Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam).
Bloggers and cyber-dissidents in these countries
were regularly thrown into prison for expressing
their opinions online. Websites were closed
down, made inaccessible or filtered and
discussion forums had especially critical
messages deleted.
About 30 bloggers were arrested during the year
and held for several weeks, notably in China,
Iran and Syria. Egypt appeared for the first time
on the "enemies of the Internet" list for its
growing crackdown on bloggers who criticised
Islam or President Hosni Mubarak.
At least 871 media workers were detained around
the world in 2006, some for just a few hours and
others sentenced to many years in prison.
The jailing in China of Zhao Yan (for three
years) and Ching Cheong (for five), both of them
working for foreign media, drew strong
international protests. The appeals against their
sentences were not even heard by a court,
depriving them of a chance to defend themselves.
The death of Turkmenistan's "President-for-Life"
Separmurad Nyazov in December could end the
repression of journalists and human rights
activists. Two of them, Annakurban Amanklychev
and Sapardurdy Khajiev, were given prison
sentences of six and seven years in June for
helping a foreign journalist doing a report on
the country.
Burma's famous journalist and pro-democracy
activist, Win Tin, began his 18th year in prison.
He was awarded the 2006 Reporters Without Borders
- Fondation de France prize for his fight for
freedom of expression.
An extra worry: journalists being kidnapped
For the first time, Reporters Without Borders
recorded in detail the number of journalists
kidnapped around the world.
At least 56 were kidnapped in 2006 in a dozen
countries. The two riskiest places were Iraq,
where 17 were seized, and the Gaza Strip, where
six were kidnapped. All those seized in the
Palestinian Territories were freed, but six in
Iraq were executed by their captors.
Reporters Without Borders met Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani at the end of the year and urged
him to put a stop to such incidents. A mission
also went to Gaza to ask Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas and leaders of the main Palestinian
factions to see that their supporters and the
general population did not interfere with media
workers.
--
Leonard VINCENT
Bureau Afrique / Africa desk
Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders
5, rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris, France
Tel : (33) 1 44 83 84 84
Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51
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