It is again the time of the year when IPI publishes it´s World Press Freedom Review. The year 2009 was a bad one – the worst in a decade. A total of 110 journalists were killed because of their work. 2006 was almaost as bad: 100 were killed. That year Irak was the bad place, total 46 journalists were killed in Iraq.
Last year´s bloody figures were driven skywards on 31 November, when 32 journalists were massacred in the Philippines.
Press freedom developments were even worse in Iran, where the authorities brutally cracked down on journalists following violent unrest sparked by allegations of vote-rigging during the re-election of President Ahmadinejad in June, and again following street protests in December. Dozens of journalists have been detained without trial, and several sentenced to long prison sentences.
You can find IPI review from here: IFEX
CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) has also published it´s own survey Attacks on the Press.
In the introduction to the survey Joel Simmons says that advocacy campaingns are diffcult and challenging in the new diffuse media landscape. But he believes that blogs, e-mail blasts, and social media to shape public opinion is useful also when you are fighting for the human rights of journalists working in repressive countries.
“The good news is that these new strategies are effective, even in places you would not expect. Governments, including the most recalcitrant and repressive, still respond to international pressure.”
Read the whole introduction: Simmons
