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…
LEBANESE JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN NOTED FOR THEIR FREEWHEELING STYLE, but the freedom and independence that characterized Lebanon’s media before the 15-year civil war have yet to return, for reasons that include censorship, self-censorship, archaic media laws, and occasional state intimidation. Nevertheless, an important taboo was breached in March, before Israel’s anticipated withdrawal from south Lebanon,…
ALTHOUGH LESOTHO’S CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, it also provides for the protection of the “reputations, rights, and freedoms” of individuals. Criminal defamation statues reamin on the books, making independent journalism a difficult and expensive career. Throughout the year, Lesotho struggled to cope with the economic impact of large-scale retrenchments in the South African mining…
THREE YEARS SINCE HIS NATIONAL PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) came to power after multiparty elections ended a brutal, eight-year civil war, Liberian president Charles Taylor has become one of Africa’s fiercest enemies of the press. On March 15, for example, Taylor’s government shut down the independent station Star Radio and suspended the Catholic Church-owned Radio Veritas.…
MACEDONIAN MEDIA ARE DIVIDED ALONG THE SAME ETHNIC LINES that define the country as a whole. At times in 2000, local press coverage of disruptions in the fragile balance between the country’s two main ethnic groups-majority ethnic Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians-was reminiscent of the verbal wars that preceded the violent dissolution of the former…
OPPOSITION LEADERS CONTINUED TO CHALLENGE THE JUNE 1999 ELECTION results, which saw President Bakili Muluzi elected to a second five-year term. The opposition’s claims of election fraud were bolstered in March, when the British anticensorship group ARTICLE 19 released a report claiming that the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) had set up two disinformation teams…
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…
THE GOVERNMENT CONTINUED TO PROSCRIBE OUTSPOKEN PUBLICATIONS under Article 11 of the 1991 Press Ordinance, which gives authorities power to ban any newspaper deemed detrimental to Islam or state authority, threatening to public order, or defamatory to foreign heads of state. During 2000, several independent newspapers were confiscated or suspended for long periods. Victims included…
IN A WATERSHED YEAR FOR MEXICAN DEMOCRACY, the dissolution of ties between much of the media and the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) helped foster a more professional and competitive press in 2000. The election of National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vicente Fox to the presidency on July 2 ended the PRI’s 71-year hold on…
STATE PRESSURE ON MOLDOVAN MEDIA REFLECTED broader political tensions between the country’s Romanian- and Russian-speaking citizens. This linguistic conflict, and related questions of sovereignty and identity, motivated government attempts to impose far-reaching restrictions on Russian- and Romanian-language media. Also, the state continued to impose large fines in libel cases, and several newspapers and journalists were…