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Assaults on press freedom

© Daryl Lease

Less than two weeks after the Committee to Protect Journalists released its annual report on the state of press freedom worldwide, its Web site posted an announcement about the death of another journalist killed while working on a story.

Thirty-year-old Kerem Lawton, a British national and producer for Associated Press Television News, was killed in the Kosovo village of Krivenik, near the Macedonian border. He died March 29 from injuries sustained when a shell struck his car, according to the Web site, http://www.cpj.org.

Last year, 24 journalists were killed at work in 16 nations. Fortunately, the fatality count has been declining in recent years, dropping from a high of 72 in 1994 to 51 in 1995 and 34 in 1999.

The committee reported that 81 journalists were held in prisons last year, down from a high of 185 in 1996.

"At the same time," Anne Cooper, executive director of the committee, told The New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com ), "outrageous abuses of the media continue, as governments achieve their repressive goals with more sophisticated techniques of harassment."

The abuses spanned the globe and included Russia, China, Colombia and Sierre Leone, among others. Other trouble spots, such as Peru and Yugoslovia, recorded a decline in violence against journalists and a resurgence of press freedom last year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists does a magnificent job of tracking problems around the world as they occur and lobbying for change. At the group's Web site, you'll find coverage of stories like Lawton's death, a country-by-country summary of problems, and more.

In addition to the yearly report on journalists deaths and abuses, CPJ also publishes annual list of the "10 worst enemies of the press." You'll find the 2000 report and links to previous years at http://www.cpj.org/enemies/enemies_00.ht...

Additional articles about press freedom worldwide can be found in the Suite101.com archives:

From March 2000, "Battling for a free press" http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/765/...

From March 1999, "Attacks on the press in Yugoslavia" http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/765/...

From January 1999, "Protecting freedom of expression -- via the Web" http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/jour...

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