Press freedom deteriorating world-wide, says WAN report

[struggle4progress]

<snip> 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.

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

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/67022/

[efhmc]

1. And we are #29 in the free press world. Wonder where we were before the

Aussie took over.