Two reports on the press

Attacks on the Press

The Committee to Protect Journalists released, in March, its annual review of press freedom violations worldwide. The review noted that 56 journalists had been killed in the line of duty in 1993 and that 126 journalists were jailed in 28 nations at the end of the year.

More than half those jailed has been there for more than two years and all were jailed because of their reporting.

The review, Attacks on the Press in 1993, lists over 700 violations of press freedom in 85 countries, as well as two extensive reports, one on Haiti and the other on the unsolved murders of immigrant journalists in the US.

The CPJ admits that, due to the difficulty of obtaining reliable information in many countries, the report greatly understates the frequency and severity of the problems.

The section of the report on Australia noted the jailing of a journalist and the threat to two others of jail in 1993. All resulted from attempts by the journalists to protect their confidential sources.

World Press Freedom

A report from Freedom House, sponsored by the Freedom Forum, listed the Australian press amongst the world's five most free press nations because of the vibrancy, diversity and lack of government encumbrance. The top five were, in order, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Norway and Denmark.

The survey, issued to mark the UN's International Press Freedom Day on 3 May, measured the print and electronic media of 186 countries in four broad areas:

• whether laws or administrative decisions influence the content of the news media;
   
• the degree of political influence or control over media;
   
• economic influences on the media by government or private entrepreneurs; and
   
• the degree of oppression ranging from killing journalists to censoring material.

Australia lost some points in the last category, presumably due to the contempt laws which saw journalists jailed or threatened with jail in 1993.

Jack R Herman

For more on all aspects of freedom of the press,
see the Freedom of the Press index page.

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Return to APC News 1994 Index

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