The predators of press freedom

------------ Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President President Lukashenko's record since his election in 1994 is grim. His March 2006 reelection with more than 80 per cent of the vote was a good example of how ruthlessly the former state-farm manager runs the country. Foreign journalists were deported during the campaign, while Belarusian journalists were brutally arrested. The independent media have been virtually eliminated and the government monopoly of printing and distribution facilities makes it easy to crush any attempt by journalists to defy the authorities. Sometimes the only solution is to go underground, returning to the Soviet era of “samizdats” (clandestine copying and distribution of forbidden material). Copies of independent newspapers were often seized in 2007 and 2008, while activists and journalists alike were arrested prior to opposition demonstrations. According to the state-owned daily Sovietskaya Bielorussiya, the president said he wanted to “put an end to anarchy on the Internet” and cited China's example. This has fueled fears that the opportunities for free expression online will soon be curtailed. Internet in Belarus ------------ Burma Than Shwe, military junta head When confronted by a major protest movement for the first time since 1990, head of the military junta, Gen. Than Shwe, had no hesitation in giving the order to fire on the crowd in September 2007. Japanese reporter Kenji Nagai was killed, some 15 Burmese reporters were arrested for carrying out interviews about the crushing of the protests and the Internet was cut for two weeks. The notoriously paranoid general ordered the tracking down of journalists suspected of sending images abroad of the monks' marches and the subsequent crackdown. The restoration of order was accompanied by a strengthening of censorship. Now holed up in the new capital, Naypyidaw, Gen. Than Shwe began his military career in psychological warfare, which gave him a strong taste for controlling ideas and the media. Dozens of military officers staff the country's censorship bureau checking the content of all newspapers, books and films before they appear. Than Shwe has also stepped up his militarist and hate-laden speeches towards the democratic opposition. He has an avowed particular hatred for Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he has kept under house arrest since May 2003, and her advisers such as journalist Win Tin, who has been in prison since July 1989. Internet in Burma ------------ China Hu Jintao, President As secretary-general of the ruling Communist Party as well as president, Hu aims to develop a “harmonious society” and combat “hostile elements.” The government's propaganda department and the secret police, both controlled by hardliners, work to stop the media reporting freely on increasing unrest in the country and to stop dissidents expressing themselves freely online. Former Communist Party Chief in Tibet in the 1980s, Hu ordered the security forces to crush Tibetan demonstrations, in March 2008, and to close the Himalayan province to the foreign press and tourists. Since he became China's leader in 2002, he has cracked down on human rights activists, cyber-dissidents and independent journalists. Although he allowed the release of journalists Ching Cheong and Yu Huafeng, the Chinese president has done nothing to prevent the arrests of scores of dissidents and bloggers, including Hu Jia, who called for greater freedom ahead of the Olympic Games. Internet in China ------------ Cuba Raúl Castro, President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers After standing down provisionally for health reasons on 31 July 2006, Fidel Castro passed the reins of power definitively to his younger brother Raúl, the defence minister, on 24 February 2008. Despite hinting at the possibility of a limited opening and adopting a few measures to relax economic control, the Council of State's new president has not loosened the state's tight grip on news and information. The transition period and Raúl Castro's first few months in sole charge saw continuing harassment of independent journalists including police brutality, summonses and searches by State Security (the political police) and detention for short periods. Nineteen of the journalists arrested during the March 2003 “Black Spring” continue to serve jail terms ranging from 14 to 27 years in appalling prison conditions. With a total of 23 journalists detained, Cuba is the world's second biggest prison for the media, after China. Internet in Cuba ---------- Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President Ahmadinejad's government continues to limit freedom of expression and the hardline president, who took office in August 2005, has named former “revolutionary guards” to head the main government ministries and institutions. The hardline media sometimes get away with criticising his policies but the reformist press (too liberal for the government's liking and with no political backing) has less room to manoeuvre. Independent journalists are regularly summoned by the secret police and can be held in secret for weeks without being allowed to contact family or lawyers. More than 50 journalists were imprisoned in the country in 2007. The dysfunctional judiciary allows the regime to harass and arrest journalists and any dissident voices that still dare to speak up. The government still refuses to put an end to the state monopoly on broadcast media and it is still forbidden to own a satellite dish. Foreign media are closely watched and their local correspondents risk having their accreditation cancelled at any time. International organisations very rarely manage to obtain permission to visit Iran. Reporters Without Borders has constantly applied for and been refused visas for the country over the past ten years. Ali Khamenei, Supreme Guide Ayatollah Khamenei has led the country since the death in 1989 of the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, and has strengthened the ultra-conservative policies of his predecessor. He controls Iran's main political institutions and the national broadcasting network and is consulted on the appointment of the minister of culture and Islamic guidance, who was responsible for the arrest of most of the journalists detained in 2006. Khamenei regularly accuses the press of being used by foreign elements. More than 50 journalists were arrested in 2007 and a dozen media outlets were temporarily suspended, but Khamenei insists that local journalists are very free to speak out. “The fact that some media outlets can freely criticise the government and the regime is a clear indication that freedom of expression exists, even if the country pays no attention to these criticisms,” he said recently. Internet in Iran ------------ North Korea Kim Jong-il, Secretary-general of ruling Workers Party A propaganda film posted on one of the rare websites favourable to the North Korean regime, shows Kim Jong-il as a direct inspiration to journalists. He is seen giving orders to reporters and correcting editorials. The fervent commentary describes the “dear leader” as the one who boosted the “popular media revolution”. “All night if necessary, he gives his opinion on articles and photographs, and corrects the editorials. He guides the media in their mission which is the promotion of the ideology of the juche (spirit of independence). In this way, the radio enthusiastically broadcasts what the Workers' Party undertakes. With the media placed under the leadership of Kim Jong-il, the country continues to triumph”, says the voice off. The North Korean media are the key to the paranoid and luxury-loving Kim Jong-il's personality cult as a “socialist hero.” He has banned the media from mentioning the famine that has killed millions of North Koreans since the 1990s. Each day the activities of the “Dear Leader” begin TV news broadcasts and are headlined in the press. The misspelling of his name or a negative remark can result in the culprit being sent to a political re-education camp. Kim Jong-il in 2007 virulently denounced “foreign influences” aiming to “destabilise” the regime and ordered security forces to prevent foreign videos, publications, telephones and CDs from coming into the country. Internet in North Korea ---------- Saudi Arabia Abdallah Ibn al-Saud, King Abdallah Ibn al-Saud, “servant of the two holy mosques,” became king in August 2005 and is also prime minister. His regime has included both repression and opening-up and he has arrested political activists and journalists but also staged the country's first municipal elections. The grip of the Saud family and its Wahabi ideology depends on rigid control of news. No laws protect freedom of expression so journalists dare not criticise the regime and self-censorship is the rule. The fight against terrorism and regional unrest is still used to justify curbing basic freedoms. Visiting foreign journalists are always accompanied by government officials who report back on what they do. Internet in Saudi Arabia ---------- Syria Bashar el-Assad, President The sole candidate at presidential elections, President Assad was returned to power as head of state in 2007 with more than 97% of the vote. More than eight years after taking power the Syrian president still refuses any compromise including on maintaining the state of emergency, in force since 1963. New political parties are still not allowed and a strict press law remains in place. Syria's isolation after the 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has made the regime take a harder line towards journalists and political activists. Arrests, state security police summonses, bans on leaving the country and blocking of Internet websites have increased. Over a dozen pro-democrat militants were jailed in 2007 and in total at least seven journalists and cyber-dissidents are imprisoned in the country. President Assad told the US TV network ABC there were no political prisoners in Syria. “We have only prisoners who were involved in terrorist attacks and those who have broken the law,” he said. Internet in Syria ---------- Tunisia Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, President Since he pushed out President Habib Bourguiba in 1987 on grounds of “senility,” President Ben Ali has kept a tight grip on the country and the media. He amended the national constitution to get himself re-elected in 2004 for another five years and said he would “promote media diversity by expanding areas for discussion, encouraging private initiatives in the media and improving working conditions for journalists.” Called on by his party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally, to undertake a fifth mandate, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is expected to stand successfully in 2009. But journalists and human rights activists are still the target of bureaucratic harassment, police violence and constant surveillance by the intelligence services. The Internet is also closely monitored. Journalist Slim Boukhdir, of the news website al-Arabiya.net, was jailed for one year for “insulting an official in the exercise of his duty” “affront to public decency” and “refusing to produce his identity papers”. The Tunisian authorities constantly use trumped-up charges to silence independent voices. Plain-clothes police even surreptitiously seize opposition party newspapers. Internet in Tunisia ---------- Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, President More than a year has gone by since Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was sworn in on 14 February 2007, two months after President-for-Life Separmurad Niyazov's death, and despite statements of intention and reforms indicating a page has been turned on the more fantastic aspects of his predecessor's regime, Berdymukhammedov clearly does not regard improving freedom of expression as a priority. Niyazov's former health minister and personal dentist, Berdymukhammedov has made some progress in other areas and has shown a desire to end his country's isolation, but he criticises the Turkmen media more often than he supports them. The state's absolute monopoly of the media has not disappeared and the opening of a few Internet cafés in 2007 does not offset the government's continuing direct control of the media's editorial policies. Even the Russian TV stations are censored before re-transmission. Detained journalists and human rights activists were not included in the prisoner amnesties announced by the new president. Internet in Turkmenistan ------------- Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President President Karimov likes to call foreign journalists “agitators,” even “terrorists,” and since 2005 has worked assiduously to make it impossible for foreign media to operate in the country. But most of his media victims since he came to power in 1989 have been local journalists. He eliminated all opposition and independent media outlets in the course of crushing a revolt in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005. He has the brutal habits of a former Soviet functionary and his victims, including critical journalists, disappear, are confined to mental hospitals or are arbitrarily thrown in prison. He said in 1999 he was “prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to preserve peace and tranquillity.” Karimov was ubiquitous in the state media during his campaign to be reelected in December 2007. The state television, in particular, constantly stressed his merits and credited him with all the country's “successes.” Running against three low-profile rival candidates, he won 88 per cent of the vote. Internet in Uzbekistan ---------- Vietnam Nong Duc Manh, Communist Party secretary-general He is one of the architects of the relentless crackdown on opposition groups and dissident publications in Vietnam. Two journalists and around 15 cyber-dissidents have been sentenced to long prison sentences since January 2007. They include Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, who was given an eight-year term on a charge of “propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” for launching an underground magazine called Tu do Ngôn luan (Free Expression) in the central city of Hue. When one of those who helped him, Nguyen Phong, was given a six-year sentence, he told the judge: “I will continue to fight for the values of freedom and democracy.” Nong Duc Manh has decided to use every means possible to silence the human rights and pro-democracy activists who got together to form Bloc 8406 and who have defied the government by launching two underground magazines that are distributed abroad and clandestinely within Vietnam. Regarded as an economic reformer, he also distrusts the Internet and had several people arrested in 2007 for demanding more democracy on online forums. Internet in Vietnam ---------- Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, President The octogenarian Mugabe, one of world's oldest rulers, was hailed when he came to power as a “liberator” comparable with Nelson Mandela but these days he tolerates no criticism. His regime's “slum clearance” targets opposition strongholds and made 700,000 people homeless in 2005, but he describes it as a public health operation. The 2002 information law introduced strict monitoring of the media and is used to combat supposed foreign subversion. The 2003 ban on the country's most popular newspaper, the Daily News, was described by Mugabe as simply a bureaucratic move. Mugabe orders the arrest of local and foreign journalists, who he accuses of spying because they do not obey the regime's strict rules, and uses threats and legal harassment in a bid to silence them. Zimbawean radio stations based abroad are jammed, using Chinese equipment, and the former “breadbasket” of southern Africa is now one of the continent's most repressive countries. Internet in Zimbabwe