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Annual Report on press freedom violations during 2002
Reporters Without Borders - Reporters sans frontières
May 02, 2003

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These are dark times for press freedom as the events of the past few weeks - nine journalists killed in Iraq and 26 journalists arrested and sentenced to prison terms in Cuba - have confirmed. Never before have there been so many journalists in prison around the world. All the indicators - including the numbers of journalists threatened and news media censored - show that things are getting worse.

Press freedom - FIGURES

Press freedom in 2002:
- 25 journalists were killed because of their opinions or while doing their work in 2002.
- 121 journalists were in prison at the end of 2002.
- Nearly 400 news media were censored in 2002.
- 700 journalists and media workers were detained for periods of varying length.
- There were twice as many physical attacks and threats as the year before.
- 1,420 reporters were beaten, threatened with death, kidnapped, charged or harassed.
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Update: 1 January to 30 April 2003
17 journalists have been killed because of their opinions or while doing their work since the start of 2003.
128 journalists were in prison because of their opinions on 30 April 2003.
The world's biggest prisons for journalists are Cuba (30 detained), Eritrea (18), Burma (15), China (11) and Iran (10).
136 journalists and media workers have been detained since the start of 2003, 246 have been threatened or physically attacked and 120 news media have been censored.

For more information, contact:
Reporters sans frontières
Africa desk
Email: africa@rsf.org
Website: www.rsf.org
Tel: 33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: 33 1 45 23 11 51
5, rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris
FRANCE

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