Press freedom deteriorating world-wide: World Assoc. of Newspapers

RESS RELEASE - INTERNATIONAL

31 May 2005

Press freedom deteriorating world-wide, says WAN report

SOURCE: World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Paris

(WAN/IFEX) - The following is a 28 May 2005 WAN press release:

Seoul, Korea, 28 May 2005

Press Freedom Deteriorating World-Wide: WAN

Freedom of expression, the safety of journalists and media development
are under siege in most regions of the world, according to the World
Association of Newspaper's half-year review of press freedom world-wide.

"The press is simply muzzled in many countries. Attacks against
journalists are common. Too many killers of journalists remain free. A total of 38 journalists have been killed since November 2004. Hundreds more have been arrested, assaulted and harassed," said the report, delivered to the WAN Board, meeting in Seoul, Korea, on the eve of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, the global meetings of the world's press.

In the past six months, the Philippines and Iraq were the most deadly
places to be a journalist. Ten journalists were killed in Iraq and nine in the Philippines in the past six months.

"The suffocation of independent media continues unabated in countries
throughout the world," said the report. "The governments of Nepal,
Cuba, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, China and Zimbabwe, to name only a few of the worst offenders, have refused to surrender their monopoly on information, finding more and more audacious mechanisms to maintain
their vice-like grip on media," the report said.



Region by region, the report said:

<snip>

Journalists have been murdered in Brazil, Colombia, Haiti and Mexico.

- In the United States, press freedom is currently facing one of its
most challenging periods in recent decades. In December, Jim Taricani, an investigative reporter with WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, was sentenced to six months under house arrest for refusing to reveal his sources. There are currently 30 cases where journalists have been
ordered by courts to reveal their sources.

<snip>

The report is available on the WAN web site at
http://www.wan-press.org/article7247.html

Worldwide despotism, with George W. Bush, that shining beacon of unbridled greed and unprovoked aggression, leading the way.

You just know he'll be insisting on press "freedoms" in those newly "liberated" countries...

Common cause plus other organizations have put together a "Media Bill of Rights." Although I agree in spirit I feel it should be a "Media Workers Bill of Rights." As long as the press cringes to any extent to corporate oversight, we do not have a very visible free press. The news gatherers have dwindled to a precious few as the APs etc. of the world are main conduit for most major media. Even they have taken to writing different versions of the same news to slant it to a particular audience. We will have to question everything soon.

<http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=100>