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'Predators' threaten free media

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  • 'Predators' threaten free media

    The Irish Times
    May 4, 2004

    'Predators' threaten free media

    By DANIEL MCLAUGHLIN

    MOSCOW

    Media freedom in the former Soviet Union is under increasing
    pressure, with journalists facing the threat of censorship, torture
    and even murder across the region, international watchdogs said
    yesterday.

    Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) included the presidents
    of Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on its
    list of "predators" - leaders whose regimes were particularly hostile
    to independent media coverage last year.

    "Seven journalists died in very mysterious circumstances in Ukraine,
    Russia and Kyrgyzstan," RSF said, adding, "journalists investigating
    political or financial corruption continued to be very frequent
    targets of physical attacks, including nearly 100 in Azerbaijan,
    mostly during the presidential election." The group criticised
    Russia, Georgia and Armenia for restricting coverage of elections,
    and said Ukraine used hostile tax laws to harass critical media,
    while Belarus suspended publication of a dozen newspapers.

    RSF called Turkmenistan - where Mr Saparmurat Niyazov has created a
    bizarre personality cult and declared himself president for life -
    the most repressive country in Central Asia. Television and all print
    media are state-controlled and "defaming or insulting the president
    is punishable by up to 25 years in prison." In neighbouring
    Uzbekistan, a key US ally in the "war on terror", a 25-year-old
    reporter was convicted of homosexuality after criticising the
    authoritarian regime of Mr Islam Karimov.

    The Committee to Protect Journalists marked World Press Freedom Day
    by naming its 10 worst places to be a journalist: Turkmenistan and
    Russia made the list.

    "President Vladimir Putin's 'managed democracy' . . . is making the
    practice of independent journalism in Russia more and more tenuous,"
    the New York-based group said.
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