Predators of Press Freedom

rsf/ reporters without borders ^

[nuconvert]

Ali Khamenei
Guide of the Islamic Republic

 

 

Journalists live with the permanent threat of being imprisoned and tried without good reason. Photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered in prison in July 2003. A total of 43 journalists were jailed in 2003, making Iran the Middle East's biggest prison for journalists.

Predators:
There are instigators and powerful people behind press freedom violations whose responsibility is not always apparent. Whether presidents, ministers, chiefs of staff, religious leaders or the heads of armed groups, these predators of press freedom have the power to censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and, in the worst cases, murder journalists. To better expose them, Reporters Without Borders has produced these portraits.

	Armed Islamic militants Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Pakistan, Philippines		Alexandre Lukashenka Belarus		Than Shwe Burma		Hu Jintao China
	Salvatore Mancuso Colombia		Manuel Marulanda and Nicolas Rodríguez Bautista Colombia		Fidel Castro Cuba		Teodoro Obiang Nguema Equatorial Guinea
	Issaias Afeworki Eritrea		Meles Zenawi Ethiopia		Nursultan Nazarbayev Kazakhstan		Khamtai Siphandon Laos
	Moammar Gaddafi Libya		Maumoon Abdul Gayoom Maldives		Gyanendra Shah Dev Nepal		Comrade Prachanda Nepal
	Kim Jong-il North Korea		Pervez Musharraf Pakistan		Vladimir Putin Russia		Paul Kagame Rwanda
	Abdallah ibn al-Saud Saudi Arabia		ETA Spain		Mswati III Swaziland		Bashar el-Assad Syria
	Taufa'ahau Tupou IV Tonga		Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali Tunisia		Hilmi Ozkok Turkey		Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenistan
	Leonid Kuchma Ukraine		Islam Karimov Uzbekistan		Nong Duc Manh Vietnam		Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe

[nuconvert]

This does not include the numbers for 2004, and already in Iran this year, we've seen arrests of journalists and bloggers almost weekly.

[rocksblues]

Seems like we have a lot of work to do.

Without the support of the UN of course!

[sevry]

Press freedom carries a responsibility, as well. You see traitorous behavior from the LM in western countries, constantly attempting to undermine free governments in favor of, ultimately, some sort of socialist tyranny. And that should be punished, perhaps, or at least fined and is not. The Ra^ther incident is a case in point. He himself should have been fined, and CBS, CSI included, should no longer be allowed to broadcast on the public airwaves (cable only). In other words, if you violate the public trust, reporters know that there are no consequences.

The history of this nation is different, of course. And press freedom is written into the Constitution (then again, so is gun ownership, states rights, and a number of other things). But because of Constitutional protection, the press component of the LM gets away with outright treason at times. And somehow, one wishes they would be held to account. Perhaps that is exactly the role of FR and similar forums.

[Lukasz]

There is wrong photo of Saparmurat Niyazov from Turkmenistan, that one is correct :)