Battling for a free press

That's the apt phrase used by The New York Times recently to describe the unfortunate journalists who showed up in the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual "Attacks on the Press" report.

Thirty-four journalists were killed in 1999, an increase of 10 over the previous year, according to CPJ, a nonpartisan group that monitors press freedoms worldwide. You'll find its excellent, informative Web page at http://www.cpj.org

The majority of those journalists were killed deliberately. Ten were slain in Sierra Leone, six in Yugoslavia and five in Colombia.

Journalists were also beaten or jailed in those nations and others. The committee says 87 were behind bars at the beginning of the new year, down 31 from the previous year.

"In the last few years, government and antigovernment groups alike are trying to directly influence news coverage by attacking journalists," CPJ vice president Terry Anderson told The New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com)

Anderson, a former Associated Press reporter, knows those abuses first-hand. He was held hostage in Lebanon for 2,454 days. He was freed in 1991 and has worked on press-freedom issues since then.

For additional information on groups that monitor freedom of expression in the United States and worldwide, visit these columns in the Suite101.com journalism archive:

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/jour...

This column, posted in March 1999, focuses on abuses in Yugoslavia at the time and includes information about CPJ's report on 1998 abuses.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/jour...

Here you'll find links to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and more.

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