This Reporters Without Borders opinion column was published on the Nouvel Observateur's website Le Plus on 2 February.

“Twitter Revolutions” – the term is widely used and has been applied to the Arab spring, not only on the virtual “walls” of Facebook but also on the real walls of Middle East capitals where messages of support and thanks to the social networking website have appeared.

But could it already be becoming obsolete? Could Twitter lose the fund of sympathy it has built up among human rights activists in recent months?

Such a turn of events is no longer improbable, as indicated by the outraged reaction of some Internet users and dissidents throughout the world to the site's announcement that it was introducing country-specific censorship in order to satisfy local laws in countries where it hopes to develop its business.

Cooperation with Internet censors

The first reaction by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei was to threaten to stop tweeting if Twitter began censoring content. The noted Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas said on Al Jazeera television:

"I know that some of the people working for Twitter were activists … If we look at countries like Egypt, like Syria, like Yemen, of course all our tweets are breaking the law. And that's what activists do, they break the law because they want to make changes to these unjust laws. They have the right to do that, and if you prevent them from this right then you are attacking human rights itself."

In a letter to Twitter's executive chairman, Jack Dorsey on 27 January, Reporters Without Borders criticised the site's action as potential cooperation with Internet censors and urged the company to reverse its decision.

Far be it from us to turn Twitter into the new public enemy of the Internet. Its famous bluebird logo has up to now been in credit so far as freedom of expression is concerned. The social networking site made public requests from the U.S. Department of Justice for access to the personal details of WikiLeaks staff or their relatives and friends who have Twitter accounts.

It also developed the Speak2Tweet application to allow Egyptians to continue tweeting despite being deprived of Internet access at the height of the demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Internet enemies do exist

We have not chosen the wrong target. Internet enemies do exist. The Chinese, Iranian, Syrian and Vietnamese government, to name just a few, control and censor the Web.

Cyber dissidents who courageously take a stand against them online are tracked down in the real world. It is no coincidence that the Thai government was the first to welcome Twitter's decision. It has itself blocked tens of thousands of Web pages, in particular on the grounds of lèse-majesté, a charge used as a weapon against government critics.

It is only to be expected that the same government will ask Twitter to withdraw messages about, for example, who will succeed the country' ailing monarch. Such a move would be in line with article 112 of the Thai criminal code, which provides for a prison sentence of between three and 15 years for anyone who “defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent”.

Tomorrow, the Bahraini authorities could well ask Twitter to remove messages about the demonstrations in Manama and the ruthless suppression carried out by the government. Vietnamese might no longer be able to use Twitter Vietnam to expose the environmental damage caused by bauxite mining. Will the accounts of cyber dissidents in Syria be deactivated at the request of President Bashar al-Assad's government?

A spiral of censorship

A Twitter representative has made a promise that all requests will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and the question of freedom of expression will be take into account in any decision to withhold content.

Twitter has also suggested that in future it will be able to censor tweets in only one country, and leave them accessible elsewhere in the world. The company has undertaken to show transparency by publishing removal requests on the Chilling Effects website. That is hardly enough.

We fear that Twitter may be drawn into an uncontrollable spiral of censorship imposed by increasingly repressive legislation. This fear is well-founded bearing in mind Twitter's argument that implies the interpretation of freedom of expression could vary from country to country.

This is unacceptable — worse still, it is dangerous. It destroys the notion of an Internet that is free and interconnected, to the benefit of a structure based on national networks regulated by local laws and restrictions that are as disparate as they are arbitrary. According to this logic, it would follow that a French Internet would not look the same as those of our European or American neighbours.

The new policy was announced after Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, visited China and expressed the hope that Twitter would one day be permitted there. It should be noted that this is a country whose speciality is recruiting private companies as part of its efforts to beef up censorship of the Web and is not likely to be content with the removal of the odd tweet.

It would like the social network to join the self-censorship pact already signed by other Internet giants such as Yahoo or, at one time, Google which has since decided to close down its local site google.cn. If Twitter hopes to stay in China, it will be forced to set up a system of post-publication censorship based on banned topics or keywords.

What added value could Twitter provide in that case, as compared with micro-blogging sites such as Sina Weibo, which have proved to be highly successful but are forced to cooperate with the authorities? Can one imagine there would some day be a sanitised version of Twitter, cleansed of all references to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo?

Twitter's brand image

It is vital that Twitter's management reassess the repercussions of the new strategy on freedom of information and also on the company's future development. The commercial benefits achieved in new markets must not be the only criterion taken into account.

At stake is Twitter's brand image among users, which depends to a large extent on the position it takes in matters of freedom of expression.

Photo credits: Claire Le Meil

The January 2011 revolution in Tunisia brought an end to Internet filtering and control of online content but old habits seem to be resurfacing and Reporters Without Borders urges the Tunisian courts not to take any decision that could lead to the restoration of filtering.

A court order requiring the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block access to pornographic websites, upheld by a Tunis appeal court in August 2011, revived the debate about censorship. As the ATI had neither the financial resources nor technical capacity to establish a filtering system, it did not comply and referred the case to the Court of Cassation, the country's highest appeal court, which is due to issue a ruling in the coming days.

If the order is confirmed, the ATI will be forced to censor online content in accordance with a complaint brought by a group of lawyers calling for the blocking of pornographic content that poses a threat to minors and Muslim values. Although supposedly independent, the ATI would be obliged to implement censorship on behalf of the courts.

“It is legitimate to want to protect children from online porn, but this is not the ATI's job and it does not have the authority either,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We favour the provision of parental control tools by Internet Service Providers rather than a return to online censorship with the ATI acting as censor, a role for which it is completely unsuited because it is, on paper, independent.”

The press freedom organization added: “If the courts confirm the restoration of online filtering, we fear that what starts with the filtering of pornographic web content will subsequently be extended to other kinds of content.”

Risks

The Court of Cassation's ruling could have serious consequences. Reporters Without Borders points out that online filtering carries the following risks:

TECHNICAL

Aside from the obvious impact it can have on connection speeds, content filtering of any kind entails a real danger of “overblocking.” Flaws in the filtering mechanisms can result in the blocking of news and information websites that are not targeted. Articles about health issues, for example, could be blocked by an automated filtering system intended to block porn. Furthermore, censorship has never deterred the many Tunisians who are familiar with censorship circumvention methods.

LEGAL

It is disturbing that judges at both the lower and appeal court level felt that they could offload their judicial authority on to the ATI, asking this agency to act as an Internet policeman and to censor content. It is the job of the courts to achieve a balance between published content and the rights of third parties. Even if the state is a shareholder, this power cannot be delegated to a company or agency, especially one whose role is purely technical.

Reporters Without Borders is not opposed to all forms of Internet regulation but it must be carried out in a way that conforms to international standards and respects the right to online freedom of expression. Measures must be taken to guarantee Net neutrality, the protection of personal data and online access as a fundamental right.

FINANCIAL

The substantial financial outlays required to restore filtering mechanisms should not be neglected. They could force the ATI to request restoration of the subsidy of 2 million dinars (1 million euros) that it used to get from the old regime to cover censorship services, a subsidy it gave up immediately after the revolution. The agency would again cease to be independent of the government.

The consumer price of Internet connections will also go up if content filtering is restored. The cost of installing filtering equipment and software will automatically be passed on by Internet Service Providers to their customers.

Tunisia's president, the president of its constituent assembly and many constituent assembly members have all publicly opposed the restoration of Internet filtering in Tunisia because they are aware of the dangers (watch the video).

A recent report by Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression, recommended that the flow of information online should be restricted only in specific, exceptional and limited circumstances, and in accordance with international standards. The report also said that the right to freedom of expression should be the norm and that restrictions should be the exception, and not the other way round.

Instead of resorting to the old regime's censorship methods, the Tunisian authorities should send their citizens a strong signal by enshrining Internet access as a fundamental right in the new constitution, lifting restrictions on Internet companies, and eliminating the censorship.

Paris, 3 February 2012 - Reporters Without Borders, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights urge the international community to take a much firmer stance on respect for human rights in Iran by raising this essential issue in the talks currently under way with the country's authorities.

These three human rights organizations also urge the EU and international community to publicly condemn the unacceptable treatment that imprisoned journalists and netizens receive at the hands of the Revolutionary Guards.

Farsnews, an Iranian news agency that is close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported on 29 January that the supreme court had upheld the death sentence that was passed on Saeed Malekpour, a computer specialist and Canadian resident. Farsnews also published a communiqué by the Centre for the Surveillance of Organized Crime expressing “satisfaction” with the supreme court's decision. Malekpour's execution is believed to be imminent.

Two other netizens, information technology student Vahid Asghari and website administrator Ahmadreza Hashempour have also had their death sentences confirmed by the supreme court in the past few days.

A fourth netizen, Mehdi Alizadeh, a website developer and humorist who was arrested for the second time in March 2011 in connection with his satirical posts, has just learned that he has been sentenced to death by Abolghasem Salevati, the head of a revolutionary court.

“We call on the international community to intercede directly with the Iranian authorities on behalf of these four netizens and to request the acquittal and release of all imprisoned journalists and bloggers,” the three human rights organizations said. “The issue of respect for fundamental rights must at the same time be raised during the ongoing economic and scientific discussions.”

These four netizens, aged from 25 to 40, are the victims of machinations by the Centre for the Surveillance of Organized Crime, an entity that was created illegally by the Revolutionary Guards in 2008. In March 2009, this centre announced the dismantling of a “malevolent” Internet network and the arrests of several website moderators, whose photos and “confessions” were published a few days later by the Gerdab website and other outlets.

Under torture, they admitted to having links with websites that criticize Islam and the Iranian government and to having intended to “mislead” Iranian youth by distributing pornographic content. They were also forced to confess to participating in a plot backed by the United States and Israel.

The detainees were placed in solitary confinement for long periods – more than a year in some cases – and the confessions obtained under torture were used against them at their trials. Malekpour and Asghari described how they were tortured during interrogation in letters to the judges in charge of their cases. At the same time, their defence lawyers were unable to meet with them or have access to their case files.

The three human rights organizations support the appeal that 39 political prisoners, journalists and intellectuals issued on 25 January, calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience including the leaders of the protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime minister and owner of the closed newspaper Kalameh Sabaz, his wife, the bestselling writer and intellectual Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karoubi, the former President of Parliament and owner of the closed newspaper Etemad Melli, have been under house arrest since 24 February 2011. Karoubi's wife, Fatemeh Karoubi (the editor of the magazine Iran Dokhte), who was arrested at the same time as him, was finally released in September.

Mousavi, Rahnavard and Mehdi Karoubi have been deprived of all their rights for nearly a year. Their relatives have not been able to visit them for months and are very worried about their state of health.

The Islamic Republic must bring this unacceptable state of affairs to an end. Arbitrary arrest and the holding of political prisoners incommunicado violate international law. Such practices are tantamount to enforced disappearance, yet are widely and frequently used by the authorities.

Reporters Without Borders roundly condemns radio journalist Farah Abadid Hildid's abduction by the police yesterday and the threats and torture to which he was subjected during the 24 hours he was held. Hildid works for La Voix de Djibouti, a radio station that broadcasts on the shortwave from Europe and is now also available on the Internet.

He described his ordeal to Reporters Without Borders by telephone two hours after his release:

“I was in Djibouti City yesterday waiting for a meeting. It was 11:30 am. Two men in a car with tinted windows stopped next to me. It was a uniformed policeman and a man in plain clothes. They asked me to get in. I refused but they forced me into the car. They blindfolded me so that I did not know where they were taking me. I found myself in a cell. They removed my clothes and handcuffed me, and that is how I spent the night, sleeping on the floor.

“They beat my feet very violently with pieces of rubber. They also broke my glasses. ‘We've had enough of you,' they said. ‘You must stop broadcasting information about us. You must stop bothering the police and the Department for Investigation and Documentation. It will be the worse for you if you continue.' At midday today, they brought me my clothes and blindfolded me again. Then they drove me to a piece of waste ground in the Gabode 4 district and left me there.”

Reporters Without Borders has decided to refer this matter to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and will remain in regular contact with Hildid in order to be kept informed of his security situation.

“The physical mistreatment and psychological torture inflicted on this journalist are a disgrace to Djibouti's authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call on them to put an immediate end to this sort of intimidation. If anything happens to Hildid again, we will know who is responsible.”

Hildid was detained twice in 2011 and was tortured and mistreated both times. This was confirmed by medical examinations after both periods in detention. The first time he was arrested, in February 2011, he was held for more than four months in Gabode prison on a charge of “participating in an insurrectional movement.”

The second time he was arrested, on 21 November, he was charged with encouraging an illegal demonstration and insulting the president. He was released four days later after being placed under the supervision of an investigating judge attached to the supreme court.

As a result of these and other events, Djibouti fell 49 places in the 2011-2012 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index and is now ranked 159th out of 179 countries.

Reporters Without Borders is extremely concerned by the growing crackdown on independent journalists in Kazakhstan “The authorities, even more paranoid as a result of riots in Janaozen in December, are using the security argument as a pretext to step up their crackdown on the media,” the press freedom organization said.

“After Stan TV and Vzglyad, Golos Respubliki is once again at the centre of the storm. Independent journalism as a whole is being targeted by a government unable to reassert its authority other than by force.”

The deputy editor of the independent newspaper Golos Respubliki, Oksana Makushina, was summoned for a second day today for questioning at the head office of the National Security Committee, the KNB. She had already spent seven hours there the day before. At the same time, the paper's editorial offices were searched and computers and technical equipment seized.

Makushina came under suspicion because she chaired a press conference three days ago in support of the jailed journalist Igor Vinyavsky (see below). Other participants were also summoned. KNB agents wanted to know how they discovered the precise charge brought against the journalist and how they obtained a leaflet that he is accused of distributing.

They also questioned the organizers to determine whose idea it was to show the leaflet to the journalists attending the press conference, who did so, and whether they were aware of the subversive implications of such an action.

Vinyavsky, editor of Vzglyad, was arrested on 23 January and is being held in pre-trial detention for two months. He is accused of distributing leaflets calling for an insurrection shortly after the overthrow of the government of Kurmanbek Bakiyev in neighbouring Kygyzstan in 2010.

The leaflet contains images of the Kyrgyz uprising and a photo of a man holding up a picture of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The caption reads: “Kyrgyzia got rid of the predatory Bakiyev clan. We've waited long enough, let's throw (this picture) in the bin!”

Press freedom organizations are surprised at the slowness of the authorities' response and believe it is a trumped-up case. There is no trace of the leaflet on the computers seized from Vinyavsky and the Vzglyad editorial offices.

Golos Respubliki is the main independent newspaper in Kazakhstan, which is classified 154th out of 179 countries in the latest world press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders.

26.01.2012 Independent newspaper editor held by security agency

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the detention of Igor Vinyavsky (Игорь Винявский), the editor of the independent newspaper Vzglyad, since 23 January and calls for his immediate release.

Arrested in Almaty at the end of a series of raids on the offices of several independent news media, Vinyavsky has been charged under article 170 of the criminal code with distributing leaflets calling for the government's overthrow. The charge carries a possible five-year jail sentence.

Mikhail Sizov, the editor of Alga, an opposition newspaper that was also searched, was questioned for the entire day on 23 January by the Committee for State Security (KNB) before being released.

Vzglyad has not been able to publish since the raids because all of its computers were seized. Vinyavsky's personal computers were also seized during a search of his home on the evening of 23 January. An Almaty court is due to decide tomorrow whether he is to remain in custody.

Harassment of independent journalists has been mounting since a violent crackdown on rioting oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen on 16 December. Members of a crew working for Stan TV, an independent TV station, were detained for an hour in Zhanaozen on 11 January. Two days later, 15 Stan TV employees – almost all of the station's staff – were summoned to KNB headquarters for interrogation.

They were questioned about their coverage of the Zhanaozen riot although none of Stan TV's staff were in the city on the day it took place. The station was however one of the first news outlets to broadcast video footage filmed by netizens showing the police using violence against demonstrators.

Reporters Without Borders notes that Charles Sanga, the managing editor of the daily Le Patriote, was released at 6.35pm yesterday after being held for interrogation for 24 hours at the headquarters of the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST) in Abidjan.

Le Patriote reporter Jean-Claude Coulibaly, who went to the DST yesterday afternoon with his lawyer, was released at the same time as Sanga.

01.02.12 - Newspaper editor arrested for publishing “confidential information”

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Charles Sanga, the managing editor of the daily Le Patriote, who was arrested by the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST), an intelligence agency, last night in Abidjan for allegedly “publishing confidential information.”

In an exclusive in yesterday's Le Patriote, journalist Jean-Claude Coulibaly reported that the Constitutional Council had decided to annul the 11 December parliamentary elections in 11 districts where the results were disputed. The council has not yet announced its decision.

The authorities reacted to the story's publication by summoning Coulibaly to the DST for interrogation and by demanding that the newspaper reveal its sources. Sanga refused to comply.

“If Le Patriote broke the law by pre-empting a state entity's prerogative to publish information, then it may be punished, but not by jailing its editor or the reporter who wrote the story,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Under Côte d'Ivoire's 2004 media law, journalists cannot be detained for media offences, so Charles Sanga must be released. Furthermore, the DST's attempt to force him to reveal his sources violates a basic principle of media freedom.”

Photo : cover of Le Patriote on January 31st, 2012.

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about alleged political interference at Portugal's main public radio station, Antena 1, which suddenly scrapped a morning current affairs programme called Este Tempo and terminated the contracts of five of the programme's commentators just days after one of them, Pedro Rosa Mendes, was very critical of the government on the air.

“If confirmed, these actions are absolutely unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This case highlights the urgency of the need to overhaul the method of appointing those who run the public broadcast media in Portugal and several other European Union member states, so that media independence is guaranteed.

“Portugal's state broadcaster, Rádio Televisão Portuguesa (RTP), must explain itself because questions need answering. If the decision to drop this programme had been taken ‘some time ago,' as claimed, why did it wait to tell the commentators until the last week of their contracts? And what were the editorial grounds for this decision, because so far none has been given?”

Neither RTP's director-general nor his press office responded to Reporters Without Borders' request for a comment.

It was on 23 January that Antena 1's news director told Este Tempo's five commentators that their contracts would not be renewed at the end of the month and that the programme would cease to be broadcast from 30 January onwards.

Mendes believes these decisions were the direct result of his 18 January commentary criticizing a special broadcast by the state TV channel RTP1 two days earlier from the Angolan capital, Luanda, in which Portugal's parliamentary affairs minister, Miguel Relvas, also the minister in charge of the state broadcast media, took part. The broadcast, about relations between Portugal and Angola, was widely criticized as a “piece of propaganda” on behalf of Angola's authoritarian government.

RTP director-general Luís Marinho told the national media he took responsibility for the decision to scrap Este Tempo, which he said was taken “some time ago.” The decision nonetheless took all of its reporters and producers by surprise. Raquel Freire, a filmmaker who delivered a commentary every Tuesday, only learned on the eve of her last commentary.

Mendes has told journalists that one of Antena 1's news director's told him the programme had been pulled in response to a direct request from the RTP administration, which is appointed by the government. “Luís Marinho explicitly told two Antena 1 directors that the 18 January commentary on Angola had not pleased the government and that this opinion slot was going to be eliminated.”

Mendes told Reporters Without Borders that, when members of the Antena 1 administration contacted him about a technical issue regarding his contract on 20 January – two days after the broadcast of his commentary but before the announcement of the programme's demise – they said nothing about his contract being terminated. Until then, their contracts had been renewed almost automatically every six months for the previous two years.

“Doesn't his prove that Antena 1's decision was taken after 20 January, rather than before? “ Reporters Without Borders asked.

The opposition in parliament has been pressing for an explanation from Relvas, the parliamentary affairs minister. The Media Regulatory Body meanwhile yesterday questioned Antena 1 programmes chief Rui Pêgo, news director João Barreiros and deputy news director Ricardo Alexandre (who was responsible for the morning slot).

Alexandre announced today that he was relinquishing his responsibility for the morning slot. When reached by Reporters Without Borders, he refused to say why. The press freedom organisation will continue to follow this case closely.

Portugal is ranked 33rd out of 179 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Reporters Without Borders is worried by the Nepalese government's decision on 15 January to drastically increase the range of official documents that are classified – a decision that had been delayed by appeals to the supreme court. The press freedom organization also condemns the many cases of violence against journalists that have taken place since the start of the year.

“Access to official documents is essential for freedom of information, which is a key component of democracy,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to reverse this decision. How can the media cover the policies pursued by the government and its leaders if the necessary documents are not accessible?

“We support the journalists who have demonstrated against this increase in the classification of information and we now await the supreme court's decision on the petitions it has received opposing the measure. We will continue to follow this issue closely.”

The government issued directives to ministries and civil servants listing 140 categories of information that should not be given to news media, civil society organizations or members of the public. This was drastic increase on the 2007 Right to Information Act, which listed only five categories, above all those concerning royal powers. The new categories include political party financing, development projects, parliamentary decisions and governmental decisions.

Reporters wore black armbands in protest against the measure while covering a visit by the prime minister to a festival in the eastern district of Dhankuta on 29 January. The festival's organizers told the journalists to remove the armbands or leave. After being escorted out of the festival, they were detained by the police and prevented from reentering for four hours. Some were roughed up.

Two petitions have been filed before the supreme court by a lawyers' association objecting to the measures on the grounds of their harm to the public interest.

The court began reviewing the petitions on 31 January and is due to continue until 5 February, by when it should have heard all the various parties to the dispute. The court issued a stay order today temporarily halting implementation, while the office of the prime minister and cabinet issued a new directive instructing ministries to delay putting the new classifications into effect.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai also met with the Federation of Nepali Journalists today, promising them that the decision would not be put into effect and that all concerned parties would henceforth be consulted about classification decisions.

Meanwhile there has been no let-up in violence against journalists since the start of the year, with political parties often being blamed.

In one of the latest cases, Abadesh Kumar Jha, a reporter for Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, was threatened on 29 January by Laxman Thapa, the head of the security committee in the eastern district of Morang, after Jha wrote about the protection that Thapa had given to a company involved in a counterfeiting case.

Nepali Congress party member Murali Kumal threatened Naveen Raj Kuikel of the Khabar Daily on 24 January in the eastern district of Lamjung over an editorial that had appeared in the newspaper. Kumal threatened to break Kuikel's hands and burn the paper.

Rupakot Community Radio editor in chief Surya Tamang was threatened by an unidentified individual on 23 January in the eastern district of Khatang simply because he was a journalist.

Ram Sharan Kharel, the editor of the weekly Rashtrachakra, was accosted in Kabhrepalanchok district on 21 January by a group of teachers who threatened to beat him for publishing a story about alleged irregularities in the management of their school. One of the newspaper's reporters, Kamal Prasad Kharel, was also threatened.

Byline Weekly reporter Himal Rai was attacked and beaten in Barahachhetra, in the eastern district Sunsari, on 15 January as he was returning from a religious festivity that he had covered. His inebriated attacker, Binod Limbu, said: “You are the man to write news.” The police arrested Limbu after watching the attack without intervening.

Setimadi Daily editor Dambar Bahadur Adhikari and Madiseti Prabaha editor Omkar Acharya were accosted and roughed up on 4 January in the western district of Tanahu by assistant district chief Rajendra Prasad Ghimire, who was inebriated. The two journalists had just covered a case of alleged financial irregularities in the distribution of medicine for elephantiasis.

Unidentified gang members beat Bheri FM reporter Tirtha Jaisee on 3 January in the west-central city of Nepalgunj. A suspect was arrested the next day.

Newspapers have also been targeted.

Students burned copies of the daily Nagarik in the western district of Palpa on 25 January because it had not run any article supporting the general strike against a hike in the price of petroleum products and was therefore deemed to oppose the strike. The students also threatened to burn other papers that did not give their protest enough support. Student and youth leaders of various political parties, including the ruling party, burned the car of Rajendra Dahal, the editor the monthly Shikshak, on 20 January while demonstrating for the same reason.

Members of organizations linked to political parties based in the Madhesh region burned copies of Kantipur Daily in various cities including Kathmandu on 22 January because it had published an article which, in their view, sullied their region's image and offending the feelings of Madheshi.

A Nepal Samacharpatra Daily vehicle that was distributing copies in the Kathmandu valley was attacked and vandalized on 17 January by demonstrators, who roughed up the driver.

Nepal is ranked 106th out of 179 countries in the 2011-2012 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Around 250 journalists have been arrested and given long jail terms during the past two years in Iran. Journalists and newspapers that fail to toe the regime's line are exposed to the possibility of being prosecuted or suspended over a report or editorial. Many journalists are no longer able to work openly. Persecution of journalists has become part of the Iranian state's political culture.

Reporters Without Borders is supporting Khabarnegaran Iran (The Iranian Journalist), an Iranian news website aimed at journalists. Launched in July 2009, it has become part of the resistance to the government's repression and propaganda.

What are the differences between working as a journalist in Tehran and working as a journalist in the rest of the country? How can you inform the public when all dissident voices are being censored? What role do women journalists play in Iran? Who are the journalists that are in jail and why are they there? How do the families of detained journalists live? These are the kind of stories the website covers.

The articles are written in Farsi but about a quarter of them are translated into English in order to reach a wider audience. The team of translators also translate some international articles into Farsi.

Using a network of contributors in Iran, the website offers a unique insight into what life is like for Iranian journalists and provides an alternative outlet to those who have been forced to stop working as journalists for political reasons.

Khabarnegaran Iran's articles hit home and anger the Iranian authorities. The site was the target a cyber-attack of unknown origin on 2 November. The reformist news websites Jaras News and Kalameh were also rendered inaccessible for more than 10 hours the same day.

The site had to suspend operations at the end of 2009 because of the crackdown on protests and massive exodus of journalists that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in June of that year. It reopened a few months ago.

Iran is ranked 175th out of 179 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index released this month. Around 50 independent newspapers have been suspended since June 2009 by the courts and by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's censorship arm. Those that continue to publish are subject to constant harassment, including warnings and interrogations, and self-censorship is the rule in newsrooms.

The Iranian authorities demonize the Internet, social networks and new media, accusing them of serving foreign interests. The regime is constantly tightening its control of the Internet and in January 2011 created the first “cyber-police” to track down online dissidents. The authorities boast of their success in the field of Internet censorship, claiming that they have blocked millions of websites.

Online filtering software developed in Iran is being used to reinforce content blocking and several western companies have been accused of cooperating with the Iranian government in this area. Iran now wants to go further and develop its own national Internet.

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the arson attack that ravaged the editorial offices of the weekly Vecherny Krasnokamsk in the Perm region in south-west Russia on 28 January. The premises of the newspaper, published by the local branch of the opposition liberal Yabloko party, were destroyed.

“Such a grave incident must be treated with the utmost seriousness, particularly since it could have caused deaths and injuries,” the press freedom organization said.

“The intimidatory shadow cast by this act is all the greater because of the current pre-electoral climate and all the political parties taking part must unequivocally condemn it.

“We hope closed-circuit television footage will permit the police to conduct a quick and successful investigation.” About 4 a.m. an unidentified man broke a window in the Vecherny Krasnokamsk newsroom and threw a firebomb inside. The premises were destroyed within minutes. There were no injuries but all equipment, files and financial records were destroyed.

The editor, Olga Kolokolova, said damage was estimated at 300,000 roubles (about 7,500 euros). Kolokolova, who is also the head of the local branch of Yabloko, linked the attack to a series of investigative reports recently published by the newspaper on corruption, which implicated the Krasnokamsk mayor's office.

The mayor, Yuri Chechetkin, protested that he had no objection to Vecherny Krasnokamsk continuing its activities.

The political climate is tense in Perm, where a Yabloko parliamentary candidate was beaten up on 29 November.

At a national level, the huge demonstrations after the parliamentary election last month have had repercussions for the traditional media, alternating between restriction and openness as the presidential election on 4 March approaches.

Thanks to the large numbers that took part in demonstrators calling for fair elections in many Russian towns and cities, the opposition has managed to drive a wedge into the media blockade it has had to contend with for years.

This month, the main commercial television stations (which are in fact attached to the Kremlin) such as NTV and Pervy Kanal have started giving a voice to government opponents at peak viewing times, albeit in a limited and partial manner. In the latest example, on Sunday 29 January, NTV gave the liberal opposition leader Boris Nemtsov a platform to highlight electoral fraud.

However, at the same time several critical journalists have been fired or have resigned in protest against internal pressure.

On 13 December, Maxim Kovalsky, editor of the independent magazine Kommersant Vlast, and the head of its parent company, Andrei Galiyev, were dismissed by the owner Alisher Usmanov for a “breach of ethics” by the magazine.

At issue was the edition published a day earlier in which a story on electoral fraud was illustrated with a photo of a spoiled ballot paper with a rude comment about Vladimir Putin scrawled on it. The headline on the weekly's front page used a play on words linking the name of Putin's United Russia party and an expression meaning “ballot-stuffing”.

The few concessions made by the authorities towards the media are far short of genuine political openness. On 27 January, the candidacy of Grigory Yavlinsky, the Yabloko representative in the presidential election, was ruled invalid by the electoral commission.

The independent electoral watchdog organization Golos was told that the power supply to its Moscow office was to be cut off until 6 March because of “renovation work”. It was about to unveil a new version of its interactive map of electoral violations adapted for the impending presidential vote.

Russia is ranked 142nd of 179 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. In September 2009, Reporters Without Borders published a report on the state of press freedom in Perm and six other Russian provinces.

Three journalists with Canada's state-owned CBC TV, who set off from Toronto today to cover a dispute between indigenous groups and Canadian and other international mining companies in Panama, fear that they may not be allowed into the country because a CBC fixer who was supposed to prepare their visit was denied entry 10 days ago.

The three CBC journalists – Mellissa Fung, Lynn Burgess and Paul Seeler – are on a flight that is due to land in Panama City at 10:15 pm.

When CBC fixer Rosie Simms arrived in Panama City on 20 January, the Panamanian immigration authorities cited an unspecified “problem” with her passport as grounds for refusing her entry although she presented a perfectly valid passport that does not expire until 2015. They held her for four hours at the airport before putting her on a flight to the United States.

“We are concerned that she was targeted because she had been in touch with some of the anti-mining communities in the country, and even more concerned that we will be met with the same fate when we arrive,” Fung told Reporters Without Borders.

“What happened to Simms is reminiscent of what befell Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato, two Spanish freelance journalists affiliated to the NGO Human Rights Everywhere, who were deported last February, 48 hours after being arrested during a major protest by indigenous groups against various mining projects.

“That outrageous violation of freedom of information must not be repeated. The tension arising from the controversy about mining cannot be used to justify any censorship whatsoever. This is a subject of public interest and not just in Panama. The international press must be able to cover this. We therefore demand that the three Canadian journalists be allowed into Panama.”

The Canadian TV crew's visit coincides with a resumption of parliamentary debates about mining legislation, including mining in territory that has been assigned to indigenous communities and is therefore supposed to be protected.

A project by Toronto-based Inmet Mining was thwarted last October when a Panamanian court ruled in favour of Ngöbe Buglé, one of the indigenous “comarcas” that has been opposing mining by foreign companies in their territory.

If the CBC crew is denied entry today, it will confirm the negative trend in Panama as regards respect for freedom of information. Panama has fallen more than 30 places in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Photo: La Estrella

More than 60 Malian journalists who cover politics for state and privately-owned media are attending a two-day seminar on “Media Coverage of Mali's Next Elections and French-Language Reporting” that began today in Bamako.

Inaugurated by Prime Minister Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, the seminar aims to promote pluralist, responsible and professional coverage of the presidential and parliamentary elections and constitutional referendum that are due to take place in Mali in 2012.

Based on the Handbook for Journalists during Elections (in French), which was produced jointly by the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF) and Reporters Without Borders, the seminar will enable the participating newspaper, radio and TV journalists to benefit from experiences and practices in other French-speaking countries. Government spokesman and communication minister Sidiki N'Fa Konaté is due to close the seminar.

It will be immediately followed by a second two-day seminar on 1-2 February for journalists, political parties and entities involved in election organization on “The Need for Joint Regulation of the Media during Elections.”

The two back-to-back seminars are being organized by the OIF and the National Committee for Equal Access to Mali's State Media (CNEAME) under the 2012-2013 Road Map of the Network of Francophone Media Regulators (REFRAM).

As part of the first seminar, Ambroise Pierre, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa Desk, is today hosting a debate on “The Rules Applying to Journalists in Normal Times and during Elections.”

Contact:

Hervé Barraquand
“Media Freedom and Media Pluralism” programme specialist
International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF)
Email: herve.barraquand@francophonie.org

Photos (Alou Sissoko) :

The speakers, from left to right :
M. Moussa Makan Camara, Representative of the OIF
M. Sidiki N'Fa Konaté, Communication Minister and Spokesman for the government
Madame Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, Prime Minister
M. Abdoulaye Sidibé, President of the National Committee of equal access to state media
M. Abdoulaye Sall, Minister in charge of Relations with Institutions

Shabelle Media Network director Hassan Osman Abdi, better known locally as “Hassan Fantastic,” was gunned down outside his Mogadishu home at 6:30 p.m. today, Reporters Without Borders has learned from its partner organization in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

“Abdi is the first journalist to be killed in 2012 in Somalia, Africa's deadliest country for media personnel,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Our thoughts go out to his family and fellow journalists, who are yet again mourning a colleague's death. He is the third Shabelle Media Network director to be murdered, following Bashir Nur Gedi in 2007 and Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe in 2009.”

The press freedom organization added: “Violence against journalists in Somalia is sustained by impunity for those responsible. It is quite clear that Abdi was deliberately targeted. We call for a serious and impartial investigation that leads to the identification of his murderers.”

Abdi was slain as he returned home from work. Witnesses said five gunmen shot him outside his home after following from his office. Radio Shabelle – a part of the Shabelle Media Network, along with a TV station and a news website – had recently covered cases of government corruption.

Born in 1982 in the far-south Lower Juba Region, Abdi was 29 and was the father of three children. He was Branch Secretary of NUSOJ in Banadir (the region that includes Mogadishu) and had worked for Radio Shabelle for three years before taking over as head of Shabelle Media Network on 20 October 2011.

Radio Shabelle is Somalia's most renowned privately-owned radio station and the one that is most exposed to violence. It was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize in the “Media” category in December 2010.

Somalia is ranked 164th out of 179 countries in the annual press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders published on 25 January. In its 2011 annual overview, Reporters Without Borders ranked Mogadishu as one of the world's 10 most dangerous places for journalists.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the 10-month jail sentence that a Bangui court passed yesterday on Ferdinand Samba, the editor of the daily Le Démocrate, on a charge of libelling the finance minister, Lt. Col. Sylvain Ndoutingaï, who is President Bozizé's nephew.

The court also ordered Samba to pay 10 million CFA francs (15,000 euros) in damages to Ndoutingaï and a fine of 1 million CFA francs (1,500 euros), and banned Le Démocrate from publishing for one year.

“How is it possible that a journalist has been sentenced to a prison term in the Central African Republic, where the 2005 media law decriminalized media offences,” Reporters Without Borders said, calling for Samba's immediate release.

“This sentence is incomprehensible. This is justice at the service of the most powerful, justice that is deaf to calls from journalists for fairer and more appropriate penalties. Such decisions cause serious harm to media freedom in this country. Not only has a journalist been jailed for what he wrote but the population has also been deprived of a newspaper for a year.”

Samba was taken into custody on 16 January, four days after the court issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a series of articles criticising the finance minister that were published in October, November and December. He has been held in Bangui's Ngaragba prison ever since.

In the trial that started on 19 January, he was charged with defaming and insulting the finance minister and “inciting hatred” against him.

No newspapers were published on 20 January by members of the Central African Association of Privately-Owned Newspaper Publishers (GEPPIC) in a protest against Samba's arrest. The association also appealed to the finance minister for a show of leniency.

Reporters Without Borders supports the leading independent media journalists who have been voicing solidarity with Samba for the past several days.

La Plume publisher Patrick Agoundou, who is currently out of the country, has meanwhile been sentenced in absentia to a year in prison. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

More information about media freedom in the Central African Republic.

The Central African Republic is ranked 62nd out of 179 countries in the 2011-2012 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Photo : Ferdinand Samba (Centrafrique Presse Info website)

Dear Parliamentarians,

Reporters Without Borders would like to reiterate to you its concerns about the proposed law aimed at combating “denial of legally recognized genocides,” which the Senate has just approved.

The substance of this law has been much debated but there are grounds for questioning its constitutionality as well. The exchanges between the law's supporters and opponents, involving leading figures and going to the very heart of our fundamental rights, have been so heated that even its supporters must realize that the Constitutional Council's opinion is indispensible. We therefore urge you to demand its referral to the Council.

There are four key aspects of the law that disturb us: a conflict with the principle of the right to free expression, a lack of proportionality between the offence and penalty, a violation of parliament's competence and a lack of clarity in the wording.

We fully share the desire for justice expressed by our friends who have campaigned for this law's adoption and we fully understand the grief of victims' descendants. Combating genocide denial and the hatred it fuels are obviously necessary and praiseworthy goals. But we must stress that they cannot be achieved at the price of violating the constitutional principle of free expression. Turning historical fact into an unassailable dogma imposed by the state opens the door to dangerous excesses. This is precisely what the Turkish authorities do when they punish those who refer to the existence of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

What safeguards protect us from future excesses? Many genocides clamour for attention and if legislators “recognize” a dozen of them tomorrow, historical research will be turned into a minefield. Is genocide denial in the process of becoming “the new blasphemy,” as the jurist Henri Leclerc said ?

Contrary to another constitutional principle, the penalties envisaged by this law are neither necessary nor proportionate. Envisaging a prison sentence for abusing freedom of expression contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, the principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international obligations.

There is another issue that justifies submitting this law to the Constitutional Council. As one of the Council's previous presidents, Robert Badinter, said : “The French Parliament has not been empowered by the Constitution to determine historical fact.” Are parliamentarians really doing the job they are supposed to do when they try to issue judgments on world history? Does this comply with the principle of separation of powers?

Finally, we note the arguments of the parliamentarian who said judges should be allowed to distinguish between genocide denial that is a deliberate action bordering on incitement of hatred and genocide denial that simply stems from ignorance and propaganda. This is an important distinction. But these nuances have unfortunately not been reflected in a clear and precise way in the law.

How is a journalist, blogger or historian to decide when a comment begins to constitute the “outrageous denial or minimization” that is punishable under this law? A law's clarity is a quality cherished by the Constitution because it makes its implementation predictable. If a judge is not limited to strict interpretation of the law, he has a degree of leeway bordering on the arbitrary, especially on an issue in which there could be considerable social pressure.

Just as democracy cannot be imposed at gunpoint, so an evolution in attitudes and national reconciliation cannot be imposed by a repressive and draconian law, especially one adopted in another country.

I thank you in advance for the attention you give to our request.

Sincerely,

Jean-François Julliard Reporters Without Borders secretary-general

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the detention of Igor Vinyavsky (Игорь Винявский), the editor of the independent newspaper Vzglyad, since 23 January and calls for his immediate release.

Arrested in Almaty at the end of a series of raids on the offices of several independent news media, Vinyavsky has been charged under article 170 of the criminal code with distributing leaflets calling for the government's overthrow. The charge carries a possible five-year jail sentence.

Mikhail Sizov, the editor of Alga, an opposition newspaper that was also searched, was questioned for the entire day on 23 January by the Committee for State Security (KNB) before being released.

Vzglyad has not been able to publish since the raids because all of its computers were seized. Vinyavsky's personal computers were also seized during a search of his home on the evening of 23 January. An Almaty court is due to decide tomorrow whether he is to remain in custody.

Harassment of independent journalists has been mounting since a violent crackdown on rioting oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen on 16 December. Members of a crew working for Stan TV, an independent TV station, were detained for an hour in Zhanaozen on 11 January. Two days later, 15 Stan TV employees – almost all of the station's staff – were summoned to KNB headquarters for interrogation.

They were questioned about their coverage of the Zhanaozen riot although none of Stan TV's staff were in the city on the day it took place. The station was however one of the first news outlets to broadcast video footage filmed by netizens showing the police using violence against demonstrators.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad's release late yesterday under an amnesty announced on 21 January for around 2,000 civilians who had been convicted by military courts during the past year. Sanad, who had been detained for 10 months on a charge of insulting the armed forces, was freed from Cairo's Tora prison late in the afternoon.

His release was reported on Twitter by his brother, Mark, who said he was weak and tired, and had gone home to rest.

“The release of Sanad, the post-Mubarak era's first prisoner of conscience, is wonderful news for both his family and for all those who campaigned on his behalf,” Reporters Without Borders said. “His release is timely, coming on the eve of the Egyptian revolution's first anniversary. His only crime was to exercise the fundamental right to free expression, a right often flouted by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces since the revolution.

“The justice system must now overturn his conviction and declare him innocent. The relevant authorities must also be held accountable for his mistreatment and the harassment of his relatives. We will continue to monitor the situation in Egypt closely. On this very symbolic date, 25 January, we urge the authorities to stop using violence and judicial abuse to suppress all forms of criticism and to end the repeated arrests, interrogations and harassment of bloggers, netizens and journalists who criticize the Supreme Council's record.”

When Sanad's brother, Mark, and members of his support committee went to Tora prison on the morning of 22 January to await his release, they were threatened and dispersed with violence by plainclothes policemen. Mark said the journalist Maikel Adel was physically attacked and taken inside the prison, where guards threatened to kill him.

The blogger's support committee told Reporters Without Borders that Amir Salem, Sanad's lawyer, has filed a complaint against members of the prison's staff, accusing them of physically attacking and injuring the blogger's supporters.

Sanad had been detained since 28 March 2011.

Egypt plummeted 39 places (from 127th last year to 166th this year) in the press freedom index published today by Reporters Without Borders, because of the attempts by Hosni Mubarak's government and then the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to rein in the revolution's successive phases.

Read the press release about the press freedom index for Middle East and North Africa.

Video of Sanad's first statement after his release

Read Reporters Without Borders previous press releases about Maikel Nabil Sanad

Gilda Silvestrucci (photo) has become the latest member of the “Journalists for Life and Free Expression” collective to get threatening phone calls, following Itsmania Pineda Platero, who received a series of threatening calls earlier this month.

The two women, along with a number of other journalists, organized a march on 13 December that was violently dispersed outside the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa. The purpose of their march was to protest against free speech violations and impunity for those responsible.

Silvestrucci has been constantly followed ever since she and 14 other women members of the collective filed a complaint against President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, armed forces chief of staff Gen. René Osorio Canales and presidential guard chief Gen. Andrés Felipe Díaz a week after the march.

“We are in constant contact with this collective and we propose to set up a permanent alert system for its threatened representatives,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge them to share with us all the evidence, including recordings or statements, that could support the complaint they filed on 21 December. We reiterate that we hold the authorities directly responsible for the lives of these women journalists and those close to them.”

Silvestrucci received a call on her mobile phone yesterday morning from an unidentified individual who told her: “We know that you have three children, that the oldest is 15, that at this moment you are walking down the street with your seven-year-old son and that the oldest is at home looking after the one-year-old baby, and we are going to kill you.”

Three days earlier, Silvestrucci's mother received a call from someone trying to find about Silvestrucci's timetable, her movements, the places she frequents and the number of her mobile phone.

Silvestrucci edits the online newspaper El Patriota and produces “En la plaza,” a programme broadcast every weekday morning on Radio Globo. She had just finished yesterday morning's programme, about a controversial mining bill currently before parliament, when she received the call threatening her and her children.

Both of the news media she works for voiced their opposition to the June 2009 coup d'état from the outset. The coup started a crackdown that has never stopped.

Unnoticed mass killings
A total of 24 journalists have been killed in Honduras in the past decade, 17 of them since the coup. The police and judicial authorities have had little success in investigating any of these cases. Murders of citizens who provided information to the media or defended human rights and media pluralism also go unpunished.

The latest victim in this category is Matías Valle, 55, a peasant community leader who was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle at a bus stop in the northern depart of Colón on 20 January, three days after the murder of Ricardo Rosales, a lawyer who had accused police in the northern town of Tela of serious human rights violations.

Valle was a leading representative of the Aguán United Peasant Movement (MUCA), a group based in Aguán, a northern region racked by violent land disputes between agro-industrial companies and local peasant communities that has been under military control since 2010.

He had repeatedly denounced the constant and often deadly harassment of the region's peasant inhabitants. The Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre), a Reporters Without Borders partner organization, said that, because of the risks he took in talking to the media, he should in principle have been a beneficiary of “protective measures”.

“If these protective measures had been properly implemented, Valle would not have been waiting alone at a bus stop and at the mercy of his killers,” Reporters Without Borders said. “His death must be added to the toll of the mass killings taking place out of sight in Aguán. At the very least, an international commission of enquiry with very broad powers should be dispatched to this region.”

Reporters Without Borders pays tribute to Valle and to his personal courage in providing badly needed information about what has been taking place in Aguán.

A week after being found guilty of participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a terrorist attack, the Ethiopian journalists Reyot Alemu, columnist for the Amharic-language weekly Fitih, and Woubeshet Taye, deputy editor of Awramba Times – which has now closed own – were each sentenced yesterday to 14 years' imprisonment.

“It is difficult to understand the Ethiopian justice system's stubborn insistence on strictly applying an anti-terrorism law that has been accused of infringing on constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, and on convicting journalists who have not been proved to have done anything more than make contact with opposition figures,” Reporters Without Borders said.

The organisation believes proof beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the highest standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in trials, was not met by the prosecution.

“These prison sentences are distressing and cause serious damage to Ethiopia's image. We strongly hope that this case will be reviewed on appeal. Reyot Alemu and Woubeshet Taye are no criminals and must be released.”

Reporters Without Borders carried out a fact-finding mission in Ethiopia between 9 and 12 January.

See below : more information about Alemu and Taye, as well as the state of press freedom in Ethiopia.

24.01.12 - "Journalists are not terrorists"

Reporters Without Borders has just visited Ethiopia, where two Swedish journalists, Kontinent news agency reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson, were sentenced to 11 years in prison on 29 December on charges of entering the country illegally and supporting terrorism.

During the visit, from 9 to 12 January, the two Swedish journalists decided to request a presidential pardon instead of appealing against their conviction. “In Ethiopia, there is a long tradition of pardons and we have chosen to leave it to this tradition,” they said, announcing their decision on 10 January in Addis Ababa's Kality prison.

“Persson and Schibbye were arrested with members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front but they never supported terrorism,” Reporters Without Borders said. “They went to the Ogaden as journalists. We are now in a new phase, one of political negotiation, and we hope that the Ethiopian authorities, the National Pardon Board and everyone else involved can reach an agreement under which they are released quickly.”

During the visit, Reporters Without Borders also assessed the current state of media freedom in Ethiopia and the constraints on its journalists, two of whom were convicted on terrorism charges on 19 January in Addis Ababa.

A repressive legislative arsenal and dwindling room for expression

Even if recent years have been marked by tension between the government and privately-owned media and surveillance of the most outspoken journalists, Reporters Without Borders recognizes that there is space for freedom of expression in Ethiopia.

As well as two state-owned dailies, the Amharic-language Addis Zemen and the English-language Ethiopian Herald, there are also privately-owned newspapers such as the Amharic-language Reporter, Addis Admas, Sendek, Mesenazeria and Fitih, along with the English-language The Reporter and The Daily Monitor. The privately-owned newspapers are routinely critical of government policies and at times provocative.

But, in the course of its observations and the interviews it conducted during this visit, Reporters Without Borders confirmed that freedom of expression has been on the wane for some time.

This has been seen, for example, in the fact that two Amharic-language weeklies, Addis Neger and Awramba Times, ceased to publish when their journalists fled the country, in December 2009 in the case of the first, and November 2011 in the case of the second.

In the course of the past three years, Ethiopia has adopted laws targeting civil society and combating terrorism that have arguably rode roughshod over rights guaranteed by Ethiopia's constitution. It is partly this legislative arsenal that has had the direct effect of reducing the democratic space and freedom of expression.

Taboo subjects and working as a journalist

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Ethiopian journalist who works for one of the weeklies told Reporters Without Borders: “There are red lines we cannot trespass while covering news stories. For example, the Oromo Liberation Front, which has long been a separatist movement, announced a few days ago on a website based abroad that it was abandoning its demand for autonomy. This is big news for Ethiopia but we cannot cover it in the local press because the authorities regard the OLF as a terrorist organization and referring to it might get you arrested.”

The journalist added: “We cannot publish the views of certain people, either. The journalist Mesfin Negash of Addis Neger, for example, is wanted on a terrorism charge. As he is living in exile, he can still write articles and offer them to newspapers in Ethiopia. But who is going to take the risk of publishing them? You could possibly be picked up at once and face charges. The law forbids it, so it is indirect censorship.”

Reporters Without Borders is concerned that when journalists with the privately-owned media dare to persist with their fierce criticisms of the state, it happens that they become the targets of criticism or smear campaigns in the state-owned or pro-government media.

Widespread self-censorship and fear of arrest have also at times led journalists to flee the country. After those who fled in December 2009, at least another three left in November 2011. They were Abebe Tola, also known as “Abe Tokichaw,” a well-known columnist for the Fitih and Awramba Times weeklies, his colleague Tesfaye Degu of Netsanet and Awramba Times editor Dawit Kebede.

Journalists facing a possible death sentence on terrorism charges

Reporters Without Borders wrote to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2011 requesting an investigation into the condition in which two journalists were being held – Awramba Times deputy editor Woubeshet Taye, who was arrested on 19 June, and Fitih columnist Reyot Alemu, who was arrested on 21 June. The letter did not get a reply.

In Addis Ababa, Reporters Without Borders asked the NGO “Justice for all, Prison Fellowship Ethiopia” to make enquiries about their situation and work with the government to assure that they are held in acceptable conditions while in detention.

On 19 January, an Addis Ababa court found these two journalists, along with a number of opposition figures, guilty of participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a terrorist attack. The charges carry a possible death penalty or life imprisonment. The court is due to issue sentences on a later date.

“Was there any irrefutable evidence of their involvement in terrorist activity produced in court?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “As showed by the prosecutor, both may have been in contact with opposition figures, which was risky, but the court should have considered the possibility that it could have been done in the exercise of freedom of expression. We are very disturbed by the idea that these two journalists may well receive harsh sentences just for expressing opinions.

“The Ethiopian government says the court just followed the law, but this law could violate journalists' freedom to practice their profession, a freedom guaranteed by the constitution. A journalist carries a tough duty to proving information to the public. He needs special protection in order to fulfill this duty. This law in Ethiopia no longer allows journalists to do their job in that sense.”

Reporters Without Borders is pleased that the head of its Africa Desk, Ambroise Pierre, and the president of its Swedish Section, Jesper Bengtsson, were able to carry out this fact-finding visit to Ethiopia. They requested an opportunity to discuss the different issues with communication minister and government spokesman Bereket Simon, but he could not be available to receive the Reporters Without Borders delegation.

Johnny Alberto Salazar, head of the community radio station Vida FM and the online newspaper vidadominicana.com in Nagua has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined 1 million pesos (25,600 dollars), on 18 January, for libelling the lawyer Pedro Baldera, chairman of the human rights commission in the northern province of María Trinidad Sánchez.

The journalist plans to appeal once the full verdict has been pronounced on 26 January.

“Whatever the truth of the offending statements, we believe this is a dangerous sentence that is disproportionate in itself and at odds with the American Convention on Human Rights in whose name no one should be jailed for what they say or write,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Parliament must urgently approve the bill decriminalizing press offences, which has been before it for almost five years.

“We should like to believe that the appeal judge will be able to assess the danger caused by the legal precedent, not only for Johnny Alberto Salazar but also for the whole of the profession in the country.”

The press freedom organization also deplores the refusal of Judge Selma Bonilla to allow the press to attend the hearings leading up to the conviction although the trial took place in public and was in the public interest. We hope this affront to the right to report the news will not occur once again at the appeal.

The lawyer brought the case as a result of Salazar ‘s recent criticisms of the human rights committee, accusing it of protecting criminals and people linked to organized crime.

“This sentence is a black mark for press freedom in the Dominican Republic,” Salazar told Reporters Without Borders.

“Those who opposed us can't stand the fact that through our radio station and other media outlets that serve the people we put ourselves at the service of the community without answering to any particular political, economic or social sector.”

When the verdict was announced, Nagua residents and civil society representatives got together spontaneously to raise the cash to pay the journalist's fine.

“The money that the people of Nagua are putting into the case will go towards building social welfare projects for the many needy families in the province because we are certain that this absurd verdict will not be upheld by the superior court,” Salazar said.