CONDITIONS FOR JOURNALISTS IN BURMA ARE AMONG THE WORST in the world and showed no sign of improvement in 2000. All media outlets are either owned or controlled by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, the military junta that has governed the country since 1988. The handful of private journals allowed to publish face…
WHILE CAMBODIA ENJOYS A SUBSTANTIALLY FREE PRINT MEDIA, local journalism continues to suffer from bitter political divisions and frequent clashes with government authorities. Press freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, and the Khmer-language press is famous for taking dramatic liberties in print, often engaging in name-calling and attacks on various political leaders. Speaking to a…
EMERGING FROM DARKNESS AND DEVASTATION, East Timor’s journalists took their first steps toward building an independent press for the fledgling nation. The leaders of the new country have pledged to promote press freedom after they achieve formal independence (expected by the end of 2001). “We have no intention to interfere in any way with the…
FIJI’S PRESS, AMONG THE FREEST AND MOST DIVERSE IN THE PACIFIC REGION, endured a tumultuous year, marked by a coup attempt that effectively dismantled the country’s democratic foundations. While former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry had been a harsh critic of the press during his brief tenure, journalists came under much greater pressure during the months…
INDIAN JOURNALISTS ARE JUSTIFIABLY PROUD OF THEIR FREEDOM, which remained largely intact last year despite ongoing sectarian and political violence, and a general climate of intolerance that has worsened under the leadership of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Journalists in India’s urban centers, especially those who work for the powerful English-language national…
A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER THE END OF PRESIDENT SUHARTO’S authoritarian rule, the most significant reform in Indonesia remains the emergence of a largely unshackled press. With hundreds of islands and a large, fragmented population, the press plays a crucial role in allowing Indonesians to debate their future and in calming tensions that arise…
CELEBRATIONS OF A QUARTER CENTURY OF COMMUNIST RULE, a wave of bomb attacks, and signs of internal dissent all contributed to foreign media interest in Laos in 2000, which in turn spurred the government to reassert its control of information and the press. In July, Laotian viewers were able to tune in live Thai television…
USING INTERNAL SECURITY LAWS AND THE PRINTING PRESSES and Publications Act of 1984, which requires annual relicensing of all publications, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s deeply entrenched ruling party and its allies maintained a stranglehold on the press. Virtually all mainstream newspapers in Malaysia are owned or controlled by parties allied with the ruling Barisan National…
ANOTHER YEAR OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY kept the Nepalese government from doing much of anything. Fortunately for local journalists, that included following through on a number of ominous proposals designed to curb press freedom. Shortly after a new government came to power in March, led by third-time prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, it announced plans to…
THOUGH NORTH KOREA OPENED UP SLIGHTLY as its leader Kim Jong Il emerged onto the world stage, the country remained a totalitarian backwater with no independent local media and only limited access for foreign journalists. Reporters from South Korea and the West are viewed with particular suspicion and were generally refused visas until last year.…