European Union

Nine years after the 1994 genocide, which killed about 800,000 people, Rwanda ended its transitional ruling period with a constitutional referendum, followed by the first presidential and multiparty parliamentary elections in the country since its independence in 1962. The transitional government’s control of the broadcast media and its repressive tactics against the independent press helped…

With a press code that imposes sentences of up to five years in prison and a hefty fine for “insulting the Head of State,” and as much as three years in jail for defaming the courts or the armed forces, Togo earned a spot on CPJ’s list of the “World’s Worst Places to Be a…

In an effort to meet European Union criteria for membership, Turkey continued in 2003 to rewrite laws that restrict press freedom. That effort has improved the country’s spotty press freedom record, but many impediments remain. Journalists continued to face criminal prosecution for their work, although the number of jailed journalists has drastically declined in recent…

Although the Kenya-based East African Standard, one of Africa’s oldest continuously published newspapers, marked its 100th anniversary in November, journalism remains a difficult profession on the continent, with adverse government policies and multifaceted economic woes still undermining the full development of African media.

While some governments in Central Asia and Eastern Europe are taking small steps forward regarding the media, 2002 was another dismal year for press freedom in much of the region. In some countries, a growing concern about Western public opinion resulted in a shift from blatant attacks to more subtle, covert tactics to control national…

During 2002, Bulgaria was invited to join NATO in 2004, but the European Union (EU) postponed Bulgaria’s admission until 2007 at the earliest. The EU’s decision reflected concern about the country’s economic underdevelopment, rampant corruption, weak judiciary, and politicized Prosecutor General’s Office. Bulgarian journalists, meanwhile, spent much of 2002 covering local drug gangs and police…

While Cambodia’s many boisterous newspapers are generally free from official sanction, the broadcast media remain captive to the political interests of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his allies. Because Cambodia has a low literacy rate and poor newspaper distribution outside the capital, Phnom Penh, the press there will not be completely free until restrictions on…

The gradual stabilization of the western Balkans, combined with closer bilateral ties to neighboring Yugoslavia, encouraged some increased diversity in Croatia’s media during 2002. On January 7, for example, national Croatian Radio Television (HRT) broadcast a Serbian Orthodox Christmas service for the first time since the country declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. In May,…

Despite having joined NATO in 1999 and being a front-runner for European Union membership in 2004, many senior politicians in the Czech Republic remain hostile toward the country’s feisty press and regularly obstruct critical media coverage of political scandals.

As Hungary continues its progress toward European Union (EU) membership in 2004, a change in government in April led to the appointment of new officials in charge of public television. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s conservative government, defeated in April elections, had previously used its political influence to pressure the public broadcasting service to provide positive…