ATR

Political shakeouts and instability once again plagued Romania, complicating its hopes for admission to the European Union (EU). In December, President Emil Constantinescu effectively ousted Prime Minister Radu Vasile from the government and replaced his entire cabinet. Often blamed for the country’s continuing economic decline, Vasile was also evicted from the ruling Christian Democratic National…

In 1999, Sierra Leone became the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, with a total of 10 journalists killed in the line of duty. (See Special Report on Sierra Leone) The combined rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) viewed all journalists as “enemies.” During a bloody…

Sri Lanka’s increasingly violent political climate has heightened the danger for the country’s journalists. The 16-year-old civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a guerrilla movement fighting for a separate homeland for the country’s ethnic Tamil minority, continued, and has so far claimed more than 61,000 lives.…

For years, Turkey has had one of the liveliest yet most restricted presses in the region. This paradox was again on display in 1999. Print and broadcast media continued to cover sensitive social and political topics and were often unbridled in their criticism of the government–notably during the authorities’ sloppy rescue efforts after the devastating…

Over the past several years, Ukrainian press freedom has deteriorated to such an extent that Ukraine, unlike even neighboring Belarus, now lacks any genuinely independent major news media. From a barrage of violent assaults in 1996Ð97 to relentless bureaucratic pressures and lawsuits aimed at bankrupting them, media outlets have been forced into the arms of…

President Hugo Chávez Frías, who took office in February in a landslide victory, excoriated the press for criticizing his plan to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution. Voters ratified the constitution in December by an overwhelming margin; journalists worry that an amendment guaranteeing the public’s “right to timely, truthful, and impartial information” could be used as justification to…

President Slobodan Milosevic first used the threat of war, then an actual war, and finally international hostility toward his regime to justify the use of government censorship and crippling fines to decimate Serbia’s various independent media. The press crackdown was particularly brutal in Kosovo, where a 1998 military offensive by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army…

Algeria (2) Please send appeals to: His Excellency Abdel Aziz Bouteflika President of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria c/o His Excellency Ambassador Driss Djazairi Embassy of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria 2118 Kalorama Road N.W. Washington, DC 20008 Fax: 202-667-2174

Zambia continued to be one of southern Africa’s worst press freedom offenders. Under the repressive government of President Frederick Chiluba, local journalists faced illegal and arbitrary detention, abuses of the judicial process, and a dearth of proper media laws. A severe crackdown on Zambia’s biggest independent newspaper, The Post, came in the context of increasingly…

New York, March 10, 2000 — Two weeks after Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky re-appeared following a month of mysterious captivity in Chechnya, confusion still surrounds his case. Today, the Russian Interfax news service reported that Babitsky had been charged with aiding Chechen rebels. Interfax said the Russian prosecutor general’s office had filed the charges,…