Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

Journalists in Prison: Analysisas treason, subversion, or acting against national interests—occurredworldwide and constituted the single greatest cause of journalist imprisonments.At least 72 journalists were held on such charges around theworld. They included Kazakhstan newspaper editor Ramazan Yesergepov,jailed on “state secrets” charges after he embarrassed the security serviceby disclosing memos showing it had exerted political influence in a localtax case. Tunisian television journalist Fahem Boukadous was being heldon charges of “harming public order” in his coverage of labor protests in aremote mining region. In Burundi, Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, editor of thenews website Net Press, faced treason charges for writing an opinion piecequestioning whether the country’s security forces were capable of stoppinga terrorist attack. And in Vietnam, blogger Pham Thanh Nghien was jailedon antistate charges after criticizing public officials’ handling of a compensationfund for the survivors of deceased fishermen.The increase reflected in the 2010 census came despite the release of17 Cuban journalists who had been held on antistate charges since a 2003government crackdown on dissent. The Roman Catholic Church, with participationfrom the Spanish government, struck an agreement in July withthe government of President Raúl Castro Ruz that called for the releaseof all political prisoners still being held from the 2003 sweep. AlthoughCuban authorities did not explicitly condition the releases on the detaineesgoing into exile, it is clear that is what the government wanted. All ofthose freed by December 1, 2010, were immediately flown to Spain. Threejournalists arrested in 2003, balking at Cuba’s apparent insistence thatthey leave the country in exchange for their freedom, remained in jail as ofDecember 1. A fourth Cuban journalist, arrested in 2009, also remained inprison.Eritrea was the world’s third-worst jailer in 2010, having imprisoned17 journalists as of December 1. Eleven of the Eritrean detainees havebeen held in secret locations without charge for a decade. The Eritreangovernment has refused to disclose any information about these detainees,who were swept up in a brutal shutdown of the independent press.Unconfirmed reports have said that four of the jailed journalists may havedied due to mistreatment in custody. CPJ is seeking to corroborate thosereports and continues to list the journalists in its 2010 census as a means ofholding the government responsible for their fates.With 13 journalists behind bars, Burma was the world’s fourth-worstjailer. Among those imprisoned was Hla Hla Win, a reporter for theDemocratic Voice of Burma, an Oslo-based organization run by Burmeseexiles and known for its hard-hitting journalism. The journalist wasarrested after interviewing Buddhist monks for a story pegged to theanniversary of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a series of monk-led protests329