Two reports on the press

Reporters Sans Frontieres 1994 Report

In its 1994 report on freedom of the press throughout the world, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres warns that "There are two major threats to the freedom and inde-pendence of the Australian press: economic concentration of the media in the hands of very few people and the authorities' refusal to allow journalists to keep their sources confidential".

The report details attacks on press freedom in 149 countries. It notes that on 1 January 1994, 124 journalists were in prison. At least 63 died in 1993 in the course of their work or because their opinions, nearly half of them in Europe. Journalists were victims of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria, war in Angola, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Georgia and Somalia, drug traffickers or paramilitary groups in Latin America, and terrorism and organised crime in western Europe.

The report also notes that censorship is increasing in step with different clans or factions seeking to control information and that the use of jail, beatings, threats and bribery to silence dissidents is rife.

Forging War - The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina

Article XIX, a London-based centre against censorship, has released a detailed study of the role of the media in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It recounts how the various governments took control of the media and undermined the pan-Yugoslav media. It documents the distortion, disinformation and propaganda used by both sides. The study was written by Mark Thompson, a British journalist.

Perhaps, the only area that needs further study (and is not covered in the report) is the effect that the media management campaigns had on foreign journalists reporting from the various republic capitals.