|
Back to Index
Press
freedom: Deliberately targeted for doing their jobs
Amnesty International
May 03, 2004
http://news.amnesty.org/mavp/news.nsf/print/ENGPOL305032004
The freedom
of the press is an essential element of the protection of human
rights. Despite many issues and challenges, a fully functioning
free press operates as the "fourth estate", exposing abuses of power
and holding the other pillars of society to account. UNESCO places
the media above all forms of communication and defines it as "an
essential component in the building of a world at peace."
In reality,
the press in most parts of the world is not completely free. Different
situations present different threats and restrictions on press freedom,
some more deadly than others, but there are few places where journalists
are fully free to seek out and expose the truth.
Kofi Anan, speaking
on World Press Freedom Day last year, said that most journalists
who die in the line of duty around the world are murdered -- "deliberately
targeted, as individuals, for exposing corruption or abuses of power;
for opposing entrenched interests, legal or illegal; in short, for
doing their jobs." In times of political strife, journalists are
often among the first victims when groups turn to violence to achieve
their aims.
The situation
for journalists is stark in some of the conflict scarred countries
of Africa. In 2002, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) named
Zimbabwe one of the world's worst places to be a journalist. Almost
all foreign journalists have been expelled from the country, Zimbabwean
journalists are among the thousands who have fled the Mugabe government
seeking asylum
In 2002, the
government enacted the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA). Many of the provisions of the AIPPA contravene international
human rights standards, particularly in relation to freedom of expression.
The Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper,
was closed in September 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled that the
newspaper was publishing illegally because it had not registered
with the state-controlled Media Information Commission (MIC), a
requirement of AIPPA. The MIC has refused to register the paper,
which remains closed at the time of writing.
An AI report,
Zimbabwe:
Rights Under Siege, issued in 2003 catalogued
abuses against journalists in Zimbabwe. "In 2002 alone, approximately
44 media workers were arrested and five media workers were physically
attacked. Two media houses were petrol-bombed in 2002, bringing
the total number of bomb attacks on the physical infrastructure
of the independent press to four since 2001."
The most
dangerous place in the world
However,
for just over a year, the most dangerous place in the world for
journalists has been Iraq. Of twelve journalists listed as killed
since the beginning of the year by Reporters Sans Frontières
(RSF -- Reporters Without Borders), five of them have been killed
in Iraq. According to the International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ), 38 media workers -- journalists, cameramen, photographers
and translators -- have been killed since the beginning of the war.
The circumstances
surrounding these deaths have highlighted worrying trends in US
policy towards journalists. The US Army has publicly stated that
it prefers embedded journalists, journalists who travel with troops
receiving greater access to information and protection from the
army. However, these journalists are usually restricted in the kinds
of stories they can cover, as they are barred from leaving the unit
and are rarely given access to people outside.
Journalists
who reject the option of "embedding", preferring to try and do their
job freely, have said that they are increasingly afraid that they
are being deliberately targeted by the coalition forces as well
as armed groups. A lack of proper investigation of incidents by
the US forces has done nothing to dispel this view, despite denials
by US spokespeople.
What is clear,
however, is that the coalition forces are failing to protect journalists
in Iraq. An investigation by RSF into the US attack on the Palestine
Hotel in Iraq, in which two journalists were killed, found that,
while there was no evidence that the hotel had been deliberately
targeted, the army was "criminally negligent". According to the
RSF report, "Two murders and a lie" published in January this year,
soldiers in the field were never told the hotel was full of journalists.
"The question is whether this information was withheld deliberately,
out of contempt or through negligence."
In the most
recent incident on 18 March, in which two journalists working for
the Arabic satellite news channel Al-Arabiyya were killed, the US
military concluded that they were killed in an "accidental shooting"
by soldiers who opened fire within the "rules of engagement". These
rules of engagement have not been made public, despite numerous
calls for the military to do so.
The killings
happened in the context of continuing criticism of the two main
Arabic channels, Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, by the
coalition. Muwaffak al-Rubai, a member of Iraq's Governing Council,
accused the stations of inciting violence, lying and being "anti-coalition".
The Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor described
a report about US forces targeting women and children as "poisonous".
Al-Arabiya was previously banned from working and its bureaux
in Baghdad were closed for two moths. Al-Jazeera was banned
from covering the activities of the governing council for a month
at the beginning of the year.
In a meeting
with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the British Defence
Secretary Geoff Hoon made the occupying forces' policy chillingly
clear. "The journalists know that they had to write the truth in
return for the protection they were given. If they write rubbish,
they might find themselves less well looked after."
This lack of
protection has put journalists at increased risk from armed groups
in Iraq. The Guardian newspaper reported Times reporter
James Hider on 14 April this year as saying that the threat of kidnapping
has become so acute that the majority of western journalists are
no longer venturing beyond Baghdad. There have also been a number
of incidents of journalists being detained by the coalition forces,
such as the Korean journalists detained in March and the four Iraqis
working for Reuters and NBC who were held for three
days in January and, according to Reuters, subjected to sleep
deprivation and other "uncomfortable treatment".
The Geneva Conventions
specifically state that journalists are civilians and should be
protected as such under the Conventions. The consistent failure
of the coalition forces to acknowledge their duty to protect journalists,
whether or not they agree with what they write, and the attacks
upon them have been condemned by the NUJ.
Caught
in the line of fire
The
situation does not necessarily improve once open conflict has ended.
An Amnesty International action for World Press Freedom Day highlights
the increase in acts of repression and intimidation by the authorities
against journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Despite
optimism that the transitional period in the DRC, which began in
June 2003, would lead to an improvement in respect for the right
to freedom of expression, the indications are that the situation
is worsening.
"Journalists
in the DRC have suffered serious human rights abuses in pursuing
their profession. Some journalists have been killed, tortured or
"disappeared". Many are routinely threatened and harassed. But the
most prevalent and systematic official tactic to stifle legitimate
press comment and to intimidate journalists has been the (ab)use
of criminal laws governing libel and similar offences. Under these
laws, the DRC authorities have unjustly arrested, detained, imprisoned
or imposed punitive fines against hundreds of journalists in recent
years."
In Venezuela,
journalists are being caught in the line of fire, according to the
General Secretary of the IFJ, Aidan White. Over three days at the
beginning of March, the IFJ reports that two cameramen were shot,
a photographer was injured by rubber bullets and two other reporters
were hit by tear gas and sharp items. They also report that a female
journalist was assaulted and received death threats and two other
journalists were stripped of their equipment and then punched by
government supporters.
Amnesty International
has criticized the Venezuelan government for failing to effectively
investigate incidents of political violence attributed to both government
and opposition supporters. "The impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators
encourages further human rights violations in a particularly volatile
political climate."
Less deadly
pressures
In
countries removed from bitter conflicts, journalists generally face
less deadly pressures on their work. However, this does not mean
that they are free to find and print the truth.
In China, there
was an increase of 60 per cent in the number of people detained
or sentenced for Internet-related "offences" in 2003 compared to
the previous year. A number of those who have been arrested are
journalists, such as Liu Haofeng, who was sentenced to three years
for "endangering state security" by writing two articles that appeared
on a China Democracy Party website based in California. Mu Chuanheng,
one of the first Chinese dissidents to use the Internet to express
his views, served a three-year sentence for "incitement to subvert
state power".
Tao Haidong
was sentenced to seven years for "incitement to subvert state power"
for posting three books he wrote criticising the Communist Party
on the Internet and Xu Wei has been tortured and ill-treated as
he serves a 10-year sentence for posting articles of political and
social concerns on the Internet. (People's
Republic of China: Controls tighten as Internet activism grows)
The authorities
in Viet Nam have also targeted Internet users. At least ten people,
including Nguyen Vu Binh, a 35-year-old journalist and writer, have
been arrested and some sentenced to long prison terms for using
the Internet whilst criticising the government or sharing information
with overseas Vietnamese groups. (Socialist
Republic of Viet Nam: Freedom of expression under threat in cyberspace)
In Cuba, 23
of the 75 dissidents sentenced to long prison terms last year were
journalists. They included members of independent journalist organisations,
cooperatives and news agencies not recognised by the authorities,
including Carmelo Agustín Díaz Fernández, president
of the unofficial Agencia de Prensa Sindical Independiente de
Cuba (the Independent Union Press Agency), Ricardo Severino
González Alfonso, President of the unofficial Sociedad
de Periodistas "Manuel Marquez Sterling" (Manuel Márquez
Sterling Journalists' Society), and Cuba correspondent for RSF and
Raúl Rivero Castañeda journalist and director of the
unofficial press agency, Cuba Press, which he founded in 1995. (Cuba:
One year too many: prisoners of conscience from the March 2003 crackdown)
Fourteen journalists
in Eritrea have been held in secret incommunicado detention since
the authorities clamped down on increasing criticism of the government
and calls for democratic reform in September 2001.Ten of them were
arrested in September 2001, when the government also shut down all
the privately-owned news media, which remain closed, and four others
have been arrested since then. (Eritrea:
Arbitrary detention of government critics and journalists)
In Ethiopia,
the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA) was banned
in November 2003. Its president, Kifle Mulat, who also edits an
independent newspaper, has been jailed four times and frequently
receives threats. Over the past twelve years, the EFJA has documented
arrests of hundreds of private-press journalists, editors, publishers,
owners and distributors, with scores sentenced to prison terms.
It has campaigned against the government's proposed new Press Law,
which would be even harsher than the current 1992 law that was entitled
"Proclamation for the Freedom of the Press".
Iran's judiciary
relies on vague laws relating to defamation and national security
that are frequently used to close publications and try and imprison
journalists and commentators. Limits to freedom of expression and
association are exacerbated by a flawed judicial structure. It lacks
true independence and requires judges to draw both on written and
non-codified, traditional law, while also holding them personally
responsible for damages.
In many areas
of the country, judges also serve as investigators, prosecutors
and judges on the same case: an astonishing lack of separation between
prosecutorial powers and judgement that flies in the face of international
standards, which has resulted in a catalogue of unfair trials that
have lead to the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience.
Article 513
of the Penal Code, under which offences considered to amount to
an "insult" to religion can be punished by death or imprisonment,
has been used to suppress the media. In 1999, journalists connected
with the newspaper Neshat (Happiness), including the publisher,
Latif Safari, editor Mashallah Shamsolvaezin and another journalist,
Emadeddin Baqi, were detained, tried, convicted and sentenced, each
to prison terms in excess of two years, for the publication of two
articles which discussed the place of the death penalty in society.
In April 2004, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin and Emadeddin Baqi become
co-founders of Society for Defence of the Rights of Prisoners, an
NGO aimed at helping those imprisoned in connection with freedom
of expression.(Iran:
A legal system that fails to protect freedom of expression and association).
In Russia,
restrictions on freedom of expression included the takeover or closure
of independent news outlets such as the television network TV-6,
which was closed down in January 2002. TV-6 had been a persistent
critic of government policy, especially over the war in Chechnya.
(Annual
Report 2003: Russian Federation)
Media
ownership and restrictions
Alongside
such official threats to media freedom, an increased narrowing of
media ownership, with fewer and fewer proprietors owning more and
more media outlets, has brought its own restrictions. Media freedom
depends on, according to UNESCO, "independent and pluralistic media,
and a better balanced dissemination of information, without any
obstacle to the freedom of expression."
To take the
example of one of the world's biggest media companies, News Corporation,
the Iraq war clearly illustrated a cohesive editorial line across
its outlets. From The Australian newspaper to Fox News
in the US and The Times and The Sun in the United
Kingdom, every News Corporation outlet strongly voiced support for
the war. As these outlets make up an increasing percentage of the
world's mainstream media, this kind of unanimity works against a
pluralistic media landscape.
A survey of
commercial television in the United States, in relation to the Iraq
War and its aftermath, by the University of Maryland's Program on
International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) showed that 80% of Fox
News viewers held one of three major misconceptions* about the
issues and 45% held all three. PIPA's report on the survey also
found that, the more misconceptions held by the respondent, the
more likely it was that they supported the war. As News Corporation
continues to expand its control of the world's media, the more danger
there is that "a better balanced dissemination of information" will
be more of an aspiration and less of a reality.
In the UK, a
recent series of articles in The Daily Express reporting
that "hordes of Gypsies" are ready to "flood in" to the country
on 1 May provoked a strong reaction. The Minister for Europe, Denis
McShane, called it a "rancid hate campaign", with other MPs condemning
it as "obscene" and "racist". What is particularly striking about
this, though, is that the newspaper's own journalists reported the
stories to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). They sought help
from the PCC to protect them by introducing a "conscience clause"
to protect those who resist pressure to produce stories they regard
as racist.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
