Fergie's Tech Blog

World Press Freedoms: New Survey, New Predators

Few years have started off as badly for Reporters Without Borders as 2005.

Reporters Without Borders compiles an annual worldwide list of predators of press freedom to show which powerful people are attacking journalists and media outlets. This very exclusive club expanded in 2005 to include new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who made inflammatory remarks as soon as he took office and forced reformist newspapers to close down.

Heads of state sometimes develop a sudden urge, after years in power, to crack down hard on personal freedoms. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, after two decades of fairly moderate rule, got tough a few years ago and turned his country into a nightmare for journalists and anyone who wanted to express themselves freely. Nepal’s King Gyanendra followed suit in 2005, when he assumed full powers on 1 February and began censoring hundreds of media outlets, especially the many independent radio stations, and arresting truckloads of journalists.

posted by Fergie @ 5/04/2006 10:03:00 AM