Committee to Protect Journalists surveys worldwide attacks on the press.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in the year 2003, 36 journalists were killed and 136 imprisoned for doing their jobs.
CPJ’s annual survey, Attacks on the Press in 2003, documents instances of media repression in 95 countries. Such repression included assassination, assault, imprisonment, censorship, and legal harassment.
The report noted that the 2003 toll of journalists killed is nearly double the rate of 2002, when 19 journalists were killed because of their work. CPJ asserts that war in Iraq was the primary reason for increase, with 13 journalists — nearly one-third of the 2003 total — killed there during hostile action.
The report says that for the second year in a row, 136 journalists were jailed worldwide for doing their jobs. For the fifth year in a row, China led the world as a jailer of journalists, with 39 behind bars. Cuba was next with 29, after a massive crackdown on the independent press led to the arrest and imprisonment of 29 journalists.
Copies of CPJ’s book are available through the Brookings Institution Press. The entire text of the book, with regional sections translated into Spanish, Chinese and Russian, is available on CPJ’s website. Arabic and French translations will be available soon, says CPJ.
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.
Source: CPJ
Date:3/22/2004
” 
” 
” 
” 
