CPJ Takes Gambia to Task for Oppressive Media Law Reform

The Parliament of the West African Republic of Gambia has enacted measures in recent months that endange its citizens' freedom of speech and restrict press freedom, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

On the same day earlier this month that the U.S. celebrated its birthday, the Gambian Parliament revised the 2009 Information and Communication Act, increasing penalties for individuals who use the Internet to spread false information or instigate violence against or criticism of public officials to a 15-year jail term and a fine of  three million Dalasis ($82,207), according to the CPJ.  Gambian Information Minister Nana Grey Johnson said the measure was enacted to thwart "unpatriotic behavior" against government officials.

Back in April, the Parliament revised the Criminal Code to characterize President Yahya Jammeh and National Assembly members, among other government officials, as "public servants," although the nation's Constitution does not recognize those positions as "public servants." The amendment was accompanied by a boost in the fines and jail time assessed against individuals who provide false information to public servants.

That same month, Gambia banned the use at Internet cafes of Skype and other VoIP platforms, citing the "national interest." CPJ accused Gambian leaders of trying to shield themselves at the expense of providing citizens access to modern communications.

                                                                   

UPDATE: Press Freedom in Burundi Staggered by Enactment of Repressive Media Law

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Proclaiming that the news media will be professionalized and that his war-torn nation will benefit from journalists being prohibited from inciting violence, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza this week put into effect a repressive media law passed by the National Assembly last April (see "TUOL" post 4/5/13), according to reports by BBC News and BloombergBusinessWeek.com.

The new measure supplants a 2003 law and among its provisions, mandates journalists, irrespective of their professional experience, possess a university degree, compels reporters to disclose their confidential sources, bars reporting on issues, including public safety, national security, morality and the national economy, and subjects offenders to fines ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 and criminal penalties of up to a maximum life imprisonment.

Free press advocates, including New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists("CPJ") and Human Rights Watch ("HRW"), and France-based Reporters Without Borders ("RWB") all condemned the new law as a major setback to press freedom. Burundi is recovering from the aftermath of a decade-long civil war sparked by the assassination of its first democratically elected president that claimed more than 300,000 lives.

Nkurunziza, an insurgent leader during the civil war, was elected in 2005 and re-elected in 2010, though opposition leaders boycotted the most recent election. According to the BBC News report, the African nation's National Communication Council ("NCC") on May 31 imposed a one-month ban on an online forum of the Iwacu newspaper because the NCC claimed readers critical comments ran afoul of the law by endangering national unity.

"This is a black day for freedom on information in Burundi," proclaimed the RWB Web site.

Burma Shaves Press Rights in Proposed Law

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A proposed printing and publishing law submitted by Myanmar's Ministry of Information has alarmed free press advocates concerned that the Southeast Asian nation may be backtracking on its efforts to relax suppression of the news media.

According to accounts by Agence France Presse and Global Post, the proposed measure would subject members of unaccredited news organizations to a maximum six months' imprisonment, and would restrict reporting on articles that violate the ruling military junta's constitution or that cover ethnic groups' skirmishes.

The proposed legislation was published last week in Burmese state-run media. Reportedly, only half of the 17 media organizations to date that applied for daily licenses received government approval. The proposed bill appears to be a retreat by the government from relaxing constraints on the press, which included eliminating pre-publication censorship rules last August.

 "Banning news topics and legalizing the jailing of journalists is utterly inconsistent with the press freedom guarantees that authorities vowed the new law would promote," a spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Journalists lamented.

2012 Hazardous Year for Journos

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The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual Attacks on the Press report this week, which recorded the highest number of journalists jailed last year since CPJ began tracking such data in 1990.

As reported by the Huffington Post, the CPJ survey revealed 232 journalists incarcerated last year. Another 70 journalists were killed in the line of duty, a 43 percent increase over 2011 figures. Twenty-eight journalists, alone, were killed in Syria last year.

 The CPJ also compiled a 10-nation "Risk List" that cited countries in which reporters were at risk of losing their lives or their freedom. Somalia, Pakistan, Ecuador, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria made the list.

Myanmar Loosens Yoke on Journalists

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Local journalists in Myanmar no longer have to submit their articles pre-publication for government approval, the Southeast Asian nation's Information Ministry announced yesterday.

According to accounts by Reuters and the Associated Press, President Thein Sein, who began to relax restrictions on press freedom last year, has ended the pre-publication approval practice that was in place for the nearly 50 years of military rule in the former Burma.

Before popping the champagne bottles in celebration of Myanmar's embracing concepts espoused by the First Amendment, however, it's worth noting that the nation still prohibits private daily newspapers and requires journalists post-publication to submit their work to the Press Scrutiny Dept., whose task it is to ensure publishing laws are not broken, which invites pervasive self-censorship. Lest we forget, the Committee to Protect Journalists last year reported Myanmar jailed a dozen journalists (see "TUOL" post 12/9/11).

Still, like new parents with a camcorder, it's worth acknowledging Myanmar's "baby steps" for posterity.

Afghan Journalists Concerned Proposed Media Law Diminishes Press Freedoms

Taliban controlled area (Photo credit: Wikipedia)A proposed revised media law in Afghanistan could tighten the reins on Afghani journalists in the war-torn country and restrict access to foreign programming, press freedom supporters fear.

According to a Reuters wire story, the proposed revision of a media law enacted in 2009 would strengthen the influence over the media in Afghanistan by the 13-member High Media Council, which is overseen by the Culture Minister and whose ranks include a religious scholar. Nai, a media advocacy group, notes that the proposed law would impose limits on the percentage of foreign programming broadcast on state media and subject such programming to the High Media Council's "acknowledgement."

Media advocates are wary as the Kharzei government pursues peace negotiations with the decidedly media-unfriendly Taliban. Afghanistan receives poor marks from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which ranks the country seventh on its Impunity Index, reflecting Afghanistan's ineffectiveness in stanching the continued widespread killing of journalists.

UPDATE: Ecuadoran President Pardons Daily & Journos in Libel Judgment

Image via Wikipedia

El Universo, facing a $40 million libel judgment, and  four journalists looking at three-year jail terms, are breathing more easily on the news that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has issued pardons, the Associated Press reports.

Last month, the Latin American nation's highest court upheld the libel judgment awarded the 48-year-old Correa based on a story alleging Correa ordered security forces last September to open fire in a hospital filled with civilians (see "TUOL" post 2/17/12). In what amounts to a public relations coup for Correa, but fosters a growing unease among Ecuadorian journalists concerning press freedom, the president characterized his granting of the pardons as a victory over a "corrupt press," according to a post on the iMediaEthics.org Web site.

It is unclear whether a scheduled March 28 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the case will go forward now that El Universo and its reporters no longer are liable for the defamation judgment, .

Syria Conflict Claims Lives of Two Western Journalists

Image via WikipediaSunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by a mortar blast in Homs, Syria, The Washington Post reports.

The American-born Colvin, twice a recipient of the British Press Awards' Foreign Correspondent of the Year, lost an eye to a shrapnel wound in 2001 while covering a story in Sri Lanka. The Syrian government has a lockdown on information, making difficult to independently verify the circumstances of the journalists' deaths, the Post account stated.

Not including Colvin and Ochlik, eleven journalists have been killed in 2012, a half-dozen of whom were confirmed to have died in the performance of their duties, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

UPDATE: Ecuador High Court Upholds Libel Judgment for President Correa

PRESIDENTE RAFAEL CORREA EN EL CIUDADANO TV (Photo credit: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador)A $40 million libel judgment awarded last July to Ecuador's President Rafael Correa against  the El Universo daily newspaper and its ex-opinion editor Emilio Pallacio has been upheld by a three-judge panel of  the Latin American nation's highest court, CNN reports.

The 48-year-old Correa, who has led Ecuador since 2008, sued when the defendant published an article accusing him of ordering security forces last September to open fire in a hospital filled with civilians. (See "TUOL" post 1/26/12.)

The Committee to Protect Journalists blasted the court decision in a statement issued from its New York headquarters.  Pallacio, who not only is responsible for $30 million of the judgment, but also faces a three-year jail term under the court ruling, presently is seeking asylum in Miami, according to CNN.

Ecuador Law Curbs Press Election Coverage; Censorship Feared

Image via WikipediaUrged by President Rafael Correa to stamp out "illegitimate propaganda," the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly has enacted a law preventing news media from writing about candidates or their movements within 45 days of an election, Bloomberg News reports.

Voters will choose a president, vice president and members of the Assembly (which supplanted the National Congress in 2007) on Jan. 20, 2013, but free press advocates, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, are concerned the legislation, that encompasses positive and negative coverage of candidates, may be used to stifle journalists.

Algeria's New Media Takes Effect--Less Repressive, But Journos Still Nervous

Image via WikipediaAlgeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's long-awaited reformed media law in the Northwest African nation took effect January 12, but a press release issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists ("CPJ") says the new measure amounts to only baby steps toward press freedom.

A majority in both houses of Algeria's legislature passed the measure, which supplants a repressive 1990 law, though the opposition Al-Nahda party walked out of parliament in protest that the new law does not go far enough.  The CPJ press release counts at least 32 provisions among the Act's 133 articles that may still restrict press coverage in the republic.

Whereas the draconian 1990 media law subjected journalists who insulted or defamed the government to 10 years in prison, the newly enacted law can shutdown publications and fine journalists a maximum 500,000 dinars ($6,706) for defamation and a slew of infractions, such as publishing information concerning preliminary criminal probes or insulting foreign leaders and dipolomats.

Media ownership restrictions are a part of the new law, as a minimum 10 years' media experience in periodical publications is required for someone to qualify as a director of  a periodical publication. CPJ also expressed concern about the legislation's vague definition of terms such as media (any broadcast, opinion letter or idea expressed by any written, audiovisual or electronic means). Algerian journalists surveyed by CPJdescribed the new law as merely offering "cosmetic changes."

Number of Jailed Journos Soars to 15-Year High

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeReporters, photojournalists and editors worldwide incarcerated for plying their trade totaled 179 as of December 1, the Committee to Protect Journalists("CPJ") reported today, up 34 from 2010, and the highest number recorded by CPJ in the past 15 years.

Roughly half of those jailed are online journalists, and 45 percent are freelancers, according to CPJ. Countries imprisoning the greatest number of journalists include Iran (42), Eritrea (28), China (27), Burma (12) and Vietnam (9), the CPJ reported in a press release. Anti-state charges and violation of censorship rules were cited as the principal bases for jailing journalists.

Press Groups Protest Jailing of Rwanda Journalists

Image via WikipediaThe imprisonment of Agnes Nksui, editor of the Rwandan daily, Umurabyo, and Umurabyo reporter Saidath Mukakibibi by the repressive regime of Rwanda President Paul Kagame has drawn fire from media organizations, Agence France Presse reports.

Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the incarceration of the two female journalists for defamation and inciting a breach of the peace. Nksui received a 17-year jail term and Mukakibibi was sentenced to seven years following their arrest in July 2010. Publication of Umurabyo was halted for six months, according to the AFP story.

The two journalists took President Kagame's government to task over its interpretation of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and also were critical of government officials.  The government pursued criminal prosecution of Nksui and Mukakibibi, rather than institute a disciplinary proceeding before the nation's Media High Council.  Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front party has held tight rein over the nation since 1994.