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Special Report
Siege Mentality: Press Freedom and the Algerian
Conflict
Country Reports
Algeria
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Mauritania
Morocco
Palestinian National Authority
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
Yemen
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The authoritarian regimes, quasi-police states, and military-backed governments that dominate the political landscape of the Middle East and North Africa persisted in their efforts to keep independent journalism in check throughout 1998. As in previous years, states attempted to muzzle dissent and critical reporting in the press through state control, censorship, intimidation, criminal prosecutions, and imprisonment.
In the region's most repressive states -- Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Tunisia -- independent or critical journalism remains nonexistent; the print and broadcast media are harnessed in the service of the state.
In countries where the press enjoys a greater degree of freedom, governments nevertheless use press laws and criminal defamation statutes to deter outspoken journalists. In Jordan, a harsh new press law bans news coverage on a wide array of topics, legalizes censorship, and mandates stiff penalties for offending journalists. Throughout the year, criminal libel and other statutes were employed against journalists in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkey, and Yemen in response to news coverage or commentary.
Forty-five journalists were in prison at the end of 1998 -- more than
half (27) were imprisoned in Turkey,
where journalists affiliated with far-left or pro-Kurdish publications
are the primary targets. In Egypt, there was a significant contraction
of press freedom; for the first time, CPJ documented cases of journalists
imprisoned for criminal defamation. Dozens more faced similar punishment
in cases pending before the courts or under investigation. At the end
of the year, Syrian journalist and human rights activist Nizar Nayyouf
was believed to be precariously close to death in his Damascus prison
cell, where authorities have denied him medical treatment for Hodgkins
disease.
Heightened tension between authorities and the press in Iran accompanied the notable increase in press freedoms under reformist President Muhammad Khatami. Caught in the middle of the deepening power struggle between reformers and conservatives, journalists were the targets of concerted state efforts to silence them. Throughout the year, newspapers were suspended and journalists arrested, prosecuted, and, even violently attacked for provocative reporting on social and political issues.
Critical reporting on international affairs can be a pretext for reprisals in many countries. On two occasions during the year, Yasser Arafat shut down private radio and television stations to silence reporting of pro-Iraqi sentiments during Saddam Hussein's standoff with U.N. weapons inspectors and the U.S.-led military strikes against Iraq. Criticism of the peace treaty with Israel or of fellow Arab states can land a Jordanian journalist in court, while in Lebanon, the press shied away from criticism of Syria and its ongoing military presence in Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia exerts such tremendous leverage over the regional and Pan Arab press that criticism of the kingdom is scant. Scrutiny of Saudi officials or policies often draws swift official responses in such countries as Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Self-censorship continues to be a regionwide phenomenon, reinforced by the fear of arrest or legal action. Following the enactment of Jordan's press law, self-censorship on political issues has increased markedly as journalists steer clear of issues that might result in fines or the possible closure of their papers. In Algeria, fear of state reprisal has kept journalists from shedding light on many facets of the seven year conflict, including state human rights abuses. Similarly, in Turkey, where Kurdish insurgents are still locked in armed conflict with the state, details of the counter insurgency war and alternative viewpoints about the conflict remain scarce in the mainstream press.
Throughout the region, however, journalists exhibited tremendous courage and determination in their efforts to report the news. Palestinian reporters and photographers regularly ran the gantlet of rubber bullets and other physical attacks from Israeli soldiers and right-wing Jewish settlers to bring images of the West Bank and Gaza to the world. And in Algeria, journalists were dogged in their attempts to report from the field about civilian massacres despite lingering fears of assassination.
Satellite dishes increasingly provided people in the region with access to alternative sources of information, such as the Pan-Arab broadcast media and television stations from countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Yemen. Although the regional broadcast media were generally cautious in their coverage of regional political issues, one exception was the Qatar-based station Al-Jazeerah, which often enraged intolerant leaders through its provocative news coverage and political debates.
Although Internet access is increasing in some countries, it is still unavailable in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Syria or, as in Algeria, it is limited by poor infrastructure. For most people in the region, the cost remained prohibitive, but for those who can afford it, the Internet served as a medium for otherwise unavailable regional and international news. Newspapers from Algeria to Yemen joined the growing number of on-line publications from the region.
The editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi -- temporarily banned in Jordan but available to Jordanians through its on-line editionÑsummed up the importance of the medium in an editorial: "[The Internet] has penetrated all borders and made press censorship the joke of the century."
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