• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Africa
• Americas
• Asia
• Europe & Central Asia
• Middle East & North Africa
CPJ’s TOP 10 BACKSLIDERS
Here are the nations where press freedom has deteriorated the most in the last five years.
1. ETHIOPIA
Wholesale arrests and newspaper closures decimate once-thriving press. More than three dozen journalists in exile. Critical Web sites blocked.
Key fact:
Less than a quarter of the 20 newspapers that published in 2005 are now in operation.
2. THE GAMBIA
At least 23 journalists in exile. Government detains journalist Ebrima Manneh incommunicado and in a secret location.
Key fact:
Criminal penalties, including prison, instituted for defamation.
3. RUSSIA
All three national television channels under state control. World’s third-deadliest country for the press. Three reporters in prison.
Key fact:
Two journalists commit “suicide” under mysterious circumstances.
4. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Authorities ban 38 broadcasters. Criminal libel cases rise. State-sponsored violence against the press is widespread.
Key fact:
Four journalists assassinated since 2005.
5. CUBA
Twenty-four journalists imprisoned. Three foreign journalists denied visas and forced to leave the country in 2007.
Key fact:
Vitral, once the island’s sole critical publication, stops running social commentary.
6. PAKISTAN
Thirteen journalists killed and 15 abducted since 2002. Only one case has been investigated and prosecuted.
Key fact:
All private television stations shut down during November state of emergency.
7. EGYPT
Government agents assault reporters covering demonstrations. Editor Reda Helal disappears in 2003. Blogger sentenced to prison.
Key fact:
Four convicted of spreading “false information” in reporting on president’s health.
8. AZERBAIJAN
The region’s leading jailer, with nine journalists imprisoned. The 2005 murder of editor Elmar Huseynov remains unsolved.
Key fact:
Editor Eynulla Fatullayev imprisoned after investigating Huseynov’s murder.
9. MOROCCO
One of the Arab world’s leading jailers. Authorities banish three top journalists through politically motivated lawsuits.
Key fact:
Le Journal Hebdomadaire ordered to pay record damages in defamation suit.
10. THAILAND
Military junta nationalizes the country’s only private television station, orders radio stations to broadcast military-prepared news.
Key fact:
New Internet law is among the most restrictive in the world.
Backsliders Online:
www.cpj.org/backsliders
IN THEIR WORDS
“This law I compare to a surgical scalpel. It is only to be used against those who criticize—inconvenient individuals, inconvenient politicians, and, particularly, inconvenient journalists.”
—Lawyer Karen Nersisian to CPJ, describing new Russian measures that equate dissent with extremism.
“The fact that the killings remain unsolved heightens public distrust in our system of justice.”
—Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno to CPJ, describing a failure of justice in more than 30 journalist slayings.
“Journalists don’t bother me. Mediocrity, incompetence, bad faith, and lies bother me—and there’s a lot of that in the press.”
—Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa during a radio address in May.
“This time I am happy because I was summoned by police instead of being beaten up with iron bars.”
—Rwandan editor Jean Bosco Gasasira to The New Times in September. Gasasira was assaulted earlier in the year because of his work.
“You have to understand the equation that the regime is playing with the press in Morocco. On the one hand, they hate us; on the other hand, they need us.”
—Aboubakr Jamaï, exiled publisher of the newsmagazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, to CPJ.
“Haitian politicians and investigators had not been interested in pursuing justice in cases of murdered journalists because some of them were implicated in these crimes. But now the situation has changed.”
—President René Préval to CPJ.
“The harassment and threats have never been worse. This is easily the darkest chapter in my 42-year career in journalism.”
—Iqbal Athas, Sri Lankan journalist and former International Press Freedom Awardee, to CPJ.
Preface
By Christiane Amanpour, CNN
Press Freedom Almanac
Introduction
By Joel Simon, CPJ
Journalists Killed in 2007
Journalists Imprisoned in 2007
Attacks on the Press: Archives
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