Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: analysisAS NEWS BUSINESS EVOLVES,FREELANCERS ARE UNDER FIREFreelancers made up nearly 45 percent of all news mediaworkers jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolutionof the global news business, CPJ found in its annual census of imprisoned journalists.In all, the survey identified 136 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behindbars on December 1, 2009, an increase of 11 from the 2008 tally. A massive crackdownin Iran, where 23 journalists were in jail, fueled the worldwide increase.China continued to be the world’s worst jailer of journalists, a dishonor it hasheld for 11 consecutive years. Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma rounded out the topfive jailers from among the 26 nations that imprisoned journalists. Each of thefive has persistently placed among the world’s worst in detaining journalists.At least 60 freelance journalists were behind bars worldwide, nearly double thenumber from just three years ago. CPJ research shows the number of jailed freelancershas grown along with two trends: The Internet has enabled individual journaliststo publish on their own, and some news organizations, watchful of costs, relyincreasingly on freelancers rather than staffers for international coverage. Freelancejournalists are especially vulnerable to imprisonment because they often do not havethe legal and monetary support that news organizations can provide to staffers.The number of online journalists in prison continued a decade-long rise,CPJ’s census found. At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editorswere imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists in jail. Print reporters,editors, and photographers made up the next largest professional category, with51 cases in 2009. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakersconstituted the rest.Although antistate allegations such as sedition were the most common chargeused to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ’s census identified an alarming risein the number of cases in which governments bypassed due process and filed nocharge at all. In 39 cases—more than a quarter of the overall census—authoritiesdisclosed no formal charges. The tactic was used by countries as wide-ranging asEritrea, Iran, and the United States.Without the legal protection of formal charges or court proceedings, at least 20of those journalists were being held in secret locations. Many were in the custodyof the Eritrean government, which refused to even confirm whether its detaineeswere still alive. Unconfirmed online reports have said that three journalists jailed inEritrea may have died in custody. CPJ continued to list these journalists in its 2009census as a means of holding the government responsible for their fates.The number of journalists imprisoned in China has dropped over the pastseveral years, but with 24 still behind bars the nation remained the world’s worstjailer of the press. Of those in jail in China, 22 were freelancers. They includedDhondup Wangchen, a documentary filmmaker who was detained in 2008 afterrecording footage in Tibet and sending it to colleagues overseas. A 25-minute filmtitled “Jigdrel” (Leaving Fear Behind), produced from the footage, features ordinaryTibetans talking about their lives under Chinese rule. Officials in Xining,Qinghai province, charged the filmmaker with inciting separatism.Most of those imprisoned in Iran, the world’s second-worst jailer, were sweptup in the government’s post-election crackdown on dissent and the news media.Of those, about half were online journalists. They included Fariba Pajooh, a freelancereporter for online, newspaper, and radio outlets. Radio France Internationalereported that she was charged with “propagating against the regime” andpressured to make a false confession.Cuba, the third-worst jailer, was holding 22 writers and editors in prison, all buttwo of whom were rounded up in Fidel Castro’s massive 2003 crackdown on theindependent press. Many have seen their health deteriorate in inhumane and unsanitaryprisons. The detainees included Normando Hernández González, who sufferedfrom cardiovascular ailments and knee problems so severe that even standing wasdifficult. Hernández González was moved to a prison hospital in late October.Eritrea was the world’s fourth-worst jailer, imprisoning 19 journalists as ofDecember 1. Eritrean authorities have jailed not only independent reporters buttheir own, state-employed journalists as well. The government arrested six statejournalists in early 2009 on suspicion that they had provided information to foreignnews organizations and Web sites.With nine journalists behind bars, Burma was the world’s fifth-worst jailer.Those in custody included the video journalist known publicly as “T,” who reportednews for the Oslo-based media organization Democratic Voice of Burmaand who helped film an award-winning international documentary, “Orphans ofthe Burmese Cyclone.” Journalism is so dangerous in Burma, one of the world’smost censored countries, that undercover reporters such as “T” are a crucial conduitto the world.The Eurasian nations of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan placed sixth and seventhon CPJ’s dishonor roll. Uzbekistan was holding seven journalists, amongthem Dilmurod Saiid, a freelancer who exposed government agricultural abuses.Azerbaijan was jailing six reporters and editors, including investigative journalistEynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee.Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:»»About 47 percent of journalists in the census were jailed under antistatecharges such as sedition, divulging state secrets, and acting against national286287