Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.
North Korea’s goal in a global nuclear crisis put the country on the front page of international papers throughout 2003. But the regime’s absolute control over news and information ensured that the world continued to know little about what happened inside the country’s tightly fortified borders.
After coming to power in February pledging to combat widespread corruption, President Roh Moo Hyun ended 2003 in disgrace, with several of his top aides under investigation for illegal campaign finance activities. Throughout 2003, the liberal president fought a heated battle with the largely conservative mainstream press, while the development of Internet news sites presented…
There were 138 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2003 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is the same as last year. An analysis of the reasons behind this is contained in the introduction on page 10. At the beginning of 2004, CPJ sent letters of inquiry to…
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…
President Kim Dae Jung, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to reconcile with North Korea, spent his final year in office politically isolated and unloved. His unpopularity came partly from the constant hammering he took from the country’s major media outlets, which oppose his “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with the…
Under the totalitarian rule of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the press is nothing but a government propaganda instrument. One political observer noted that the only variation in the country’s media is the relative degree of vitriol directed against South Korea, Japan, and the United States, calibrated to suit the foreign policy priorities of…
During 2001, a state crackdown on alleged financial misconduct by the country’s major media companies further embittered already contentious relations between President Kim Dae Jung and the South Korean press. In January, the president stated that “it is incumbent upon the news media to practice fair and balanced reporting with responsible criticism.” Only weeks later,…