RSF: 2009 a Year That Will Remain in Press Freedom Infamy

Reporters without Borders (RSF) released its annual report on violence against journalists in 2009, and the outgoing year will be remember as a especially bloody and repressive one.

According to RSF, 76 journalists were murdered this year, 16 more than in 2008, including the worst massacre of journalists in history, the slaughter of 30 professionals that took place in the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines.


The body of one of the 30 journalists massacred in the
Philippines is put to rest in General Santos City cemetery
(EPA photo)

Also, 1,456 journalists were physically attacked, a 56 percent increase from 2008, and the year also saw 570 instances of outright censorship, 61 percent more than the previous year.

That's not all. The number of kidnapped journalists, 33, was also superior to the ones that happened in 2008, a 13 percent increase.

Internet reporters and bloggers also will be happy to say farewell to 2009. RSF's tally reflects that in 60 countries, there were 151 bloggers and cyberdissidents arrested, and 61 attacked.

One little spot of silver lining in this very dark cloud was the number of arrested journalists, which went down from 673 in 2008 to 573 in 2009.

In this department, RSF emphasizes the instances of Cuba, the worst journalist jailer in the world (24), China, Sri Lanka and Iran, all countries that punish journalists as harshly as murderers or terrorists.

RSF:

Wars and elections constituted the chief threat to journalists in 2009. It is becoming more and more risky to cover wars as journalists themselves are being targeted and face the possibility of being murdered or kidnapped. But it can turn out to be just as dangerous to do your job as a reporter at election time and can lead directly to prison or hospital. Violence before and after elections was particularly prevalent in 2009 in countries with poor democratic credentials.

No one should be surprised that, as bloggers and websites continue to flourish, censorship and repression have surged proportionately. There is almost no country nowadays that has entirely escaped this phenomenon. As soon as the Internet or new media (social networking, mobile phones etc) start to play a leading role in the spread of news and information, a serious clampdown follows. Bloggers are now watched as closely as journalists from the traditional media.

Our major concern in 2009 has been the mass exodus of journalists from repressive countries such as Iran and Sri Lanka. The authorities in these countries have understood that by pushing journalists into exile, they can drastically reduce pluralism of ideas and the amount of criticism they attract. “This is a dangerous tendency and it must be very strongly condemned,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said as this review of 2009 was released.

(...)

Pluralist elections that should be a symbol of democracy and free expression can turn into a nightmare for journalists. State media are too often prevented from giving fair and balanced coverage of all the candidates’ campaigns.

We all need to be very thankful to all those journalists, bloggers and cyberdissidents who gave their lives, their freedom or their physical integrity in the name of press freedom and freedom of expression.

They all are the heroes who strive to keep us all informed about crucial issues, and in too many instances at a staggering price.

Comments

[Gaston and Marie]

Unfortunately, even in countries where journalism is a respected profession, investigative journalists are rarely a welcome addition to a delicate situation.

Sometimes, investigative journalists can add exactly the wrong note to a negotiation, thus preventing a favorable conclusion which would have been in the public interest.

Police also often have problems with journalists attempting to compromise investigations.

This is in no way to justify the violence perpetrated upon journalists. However, unfortunately, journalists are often cast in the role of the tellers of tales we have all learned on the school ground just isn't done.

Of course, we need a free press.

However, even great men such as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams called for the arrest of journalists when they or their well intentioned policies were attacked in print.

Therefore, journalists perpetually have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

When a person or group are subject to the ubiquitous op-ed piece, thoughts of doing violence to the writer are very common.

Of course, in a civilized country, outright attacks are punished harshly. Even so, if we are honest with ourselves, there is always that lingering feeling that journalists are just one step above the snitch in the school yard that everyone distrusted and did their best to avoid.

[Writings of french geek]

Thank you for this interesting article. I precisely have just written an article on freedom of the press and freedom of expression today: Internet makes possible Poor to be expressed as easily as Rich ( http://bit.ly/8ky7Fe )