26th March 2000

A hate-hate relationship

Even John F. Kennedy, one of America's greatly idolized presidents who had a remarkable working relationship with the US media, once told reporters: "I always said that when we don't have to go through you bastards, we can really get our story over to the American people."

But what Kennedy did not realize is that the day you write to please everyone, you are no longer in journalism. You are, as one cynic remarked, in show business.

The 1999 annual report of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released last week proved once again how most world leaders love to hate the press — and occasionally prefer journalists to be among the dead than the living.

Journalists were killed in virtually every region of the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America — making them one of the world's most endangered species. In 1999, 34 reporters were killed in the line of duty compared with 24 in 1998.

The largest number, 10, were killed in Sierra Leone, where most of the victims were hunted down by rebels who sought to silence journalists writing about atrocities against civilians. Six more journalists lost their lives in Yugoslavia and five were murdered in Colombia.

The rest of the journalists killed included one from Argentina, two from Indonesia, one from Lebanon, three each from Nigeria and Russia, two from Sri Lanka and one from Turkey.

In Sri Lanka, three other journalists were assassinated during the year, says CPJ, for reasons that remain unknown.

Titled "Attacks on the Press in 1999," the report provides details of more than 500 cases of journalists who were either fined, assaulted, imprisoned or killed because of their work.

Sophisticated despots are adopting more subtle methods to muzzle the press, says CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, although some wily leaders understand that regimes can pay an international price for routinely jailing journalists.

"So instead, they drive independent media out of business by harassing them with tax laws, levying crippling fines, or cutting off access to state-controlled newsprint and printing presses," Cooper points out.

Though a variety of laws are used against journalists, criminal libel statutes remain the most worrisome threat to independent journalism. All over the world, dozens of countries maintain criminal penalties for libel. CPJ says it opposes such laws.

"We believe that civil penalties provide adequate remedy in cases of genuine libel, and that the threat of jail has a chilling effect on independent, investigative journalism," Cooper notes.

This is particularly true in countries where the judiciary has little or no independence from public officials who are most likely to bring a libel suit — generally because they want to suppress uncomfortable news about themselves.

According to CPJ, much of Asia last year remained hostile to a free, independent media, despite the growing consensus that Asian political and economic stability depends in great measure on governments' willingness to improve transparency and lift restrictions on the press.

In its 435-page report released at the United Nations last week, the CPJ said that in China, Burma, Vietnam, and even Malaysia, government suppression of the media is a matter of policy.

In other parts of Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia, journalists were mainly threatened by political violence.

In Africa, however, conflict continued to be the single biggest threat to journalists and to press freedom itself.

Both civil and cross-border wars were effectively used as an excuse by governments and rebel forces to harass, intimidate and censor the press - often in the name of "national security" - and in some cases to kill journalists with impunity.

According to the CPJ, such tactics are employed by governments in many countries, including Algeria and Pakistan.

But their use grew at a particularly alarming rate last year in the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries of central and Eastern Europe.

Of the journalists who were killed, some were caught in crossfires covering local and regional conflicts that have proliferated since the end of the Cold War in 1989. But most were targeted for assassinations by factions eager to suppress reporting on their misdeeds.

"While the deaths of journalists make up the most dramatic barometer of the state of press freedom, imprisonment is another powerful tool used by enemies of the press," the report said.

China has been described as the world's leading jailer of journalists, with 19 in prison at year's end, nearly a quarter of the total.

By the end of last year, 87 journalists were held behind bars for their work - a decrease from the 118 imprisoned in 1998.

"The drop is welcome improvement", the Committee said, pointing out that dozens more were detained during 1999, but released before year's end.