The Top 25 Acts of Media Censorship, 2002-2003
As a counterpoint to the misleading Project Censored list of
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3250”>top 25 “censored” articles –
none of which were actually censored – Vigilant TV would like to offer
an alternative list:
The Top 25 Acts of Media Censorship, 2002-2003
#1 – The Cuban government jails 75 pro-democracy
activists, including 30
journalists, for writing articles that appeared in the foreign
press. They receive sentences between 14 and 27 years for “undermining
the state’s independence.”
#2 – Nigeria’s Zamfara State
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2468”>issues a fatwa calling for
the death of fashion writer Isioma Daniel, after she published an
href=”http://vigilant.tv/documents/20021116cov01.txt”>article
suggesting the Prophet Muhammed would have approved of the Miss World
pageant. The local office of the newspaper This Day, which initially
published the article, was subsequently destroyed in riots that left
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2457”>more than 200 dead.
#3 – The Tongan government declares the Times of Tonga newspaper, which
is published in New Zealand, to be a
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2891”>prohibited import, for
campaigning against the government. Officials claim that allowing the
newspaper to be imported would be a human rights violation. King
Taufa’ahau Tupou IV later bans
possession of the newspaper, and finally even
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3056”>prohibits discussion of the
ban.
#4 – The Australian High Court rules that Barron’s magazine may
be sued in Victoria over
an
href=”http://www.usajewish.com/scripts/usaj/forum/forum.idc?ForumID=24&A
rchiveID=46#msg767”>article published in New Jersey. Other
Commonwealth nations subsequently
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2565”>consider adopting the
decision.
#5 – The Chinese government orders journalists to undergo
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2534”>Communist Party propaganda
tests in order to obtain licenses. Unlicensed journalists are not
tolerated – for example the 10 photographers
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3225”>beaten by police while
attempting to cover an education bureau meeting.
#6 – Bangladesh arrests two
local journalists on sedition charges and
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2551”>deports two UK reporters for
trying to make a political
documentary. The journalists were intitally
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2501”>threatened with execution,
and were denied access to
their lawyers.
#7 – Vietnamese officials arrest and imprison several
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2981”>democracy activists for
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2398”>publishing anti-government
material on the internet. Several face
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2603”>espionage charges. In
October 2002 the government ruled that web site operators, including
journalists and human rights groups must
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2350”>obtain a license before
publishing material on the web.
#8 – Afghanistan’s Supreme Court
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2754”>bans cable television, ruling
that broadcasts were offensive to Islam. The “temporary” ban is still
in place.
#9 – Afghan newspaper Aftab is
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3167”>shut down and its editors
charged with blasphemy. Several journalists are charged over articles
calling for a moderate approach to Islamic law.
#10 – The Russian Press Ministry
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3169”>shuts down the last remaining
independent television station. The station’s operators say they were
forced into financial ruin by government licensing fees.
#11 – Malaysian police raid
the offices of the popular news web site Malasyakini, following the
publication of a reader’s letter to the editor. The
government insists that earlier promises of press freedom
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2753”>only apply to those who are
“good”. The raid followed a government proposal that radio stations
must submit scripts of all
programmes – including “live” broadcasts – to the Information
Ministry for preapproval and censoring.
#12 – Columbian radio journalist Juan Emeterio Rivas
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3075”>is murdered. He was
threatened repeatedly by FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, after broadcasting unfavourable statements.
#13 – Iranian journalist and blogger Sina Motallebi is
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3109”>arrested for publishing
material on his web site and giving interviews to foreign reporters.
#14 – The Lebanese government
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2650”>shuts down a satellite TV
station to prevent it broadcasting a documentary about US-Saudi
relations. The Bar Association condemns the action as
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2667”>unconstitutional.
#15 – The editors of
Indonesian newspaper Rakyat Merdeka are
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3182”>threatened and later
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3221”>charged for insulting
President Sukarnoputri. The legislation used to prosecute is the same
one used against Sukarnoputri’s father years before.
#16 – Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2605”>orders the closure of the
Islamic newspaper Sawt Al-Haqq Wal-Hurriya, over accusations of inciting
violence. The decision is made by Yishai alone, under a 1933 British
law.
#17 – Syrian journalist Ibrahim Hmeidi is
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3157”>jailed for 5 months for
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2734”>publishing an article about
planned refugee camps.
#18 – The Algerian government
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3195”>deports two journalists for
broadcasting television footage of the release of two Islamic Salvation
Front leaders.
#19 – Moroccan newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet faces charges of
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3153”>undermining the monarchy and
territorial integrity of Morocco for publishing a satirical cartoon.
#20 – Twenty Tunisian students are arrested for href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2855”>reading opposition web sites.
#21 – Two Cambodian journalists are
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2789”>charged with incitement for
publishing rumoured insults by a Thai actress. 170 people were arrested
for rioting over the comments.
#22 – The Ethiopian government
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2780”>proposes and later passes
strict new media laws. Journalists are
href=”http://www.wan-press.info/pages/article.php3?id_article=1399”>repeatedly jailed for publishing articles critical of the government.
#23 – Jordan shuts down a
newspaper and arrests three journalists for publishing an article
about the Prophet Muhammad’s sex life.
#24 – Uganda reinforces its already strict media laws with a plan to
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2664”>license journalists. The
plan follows a number of
href=”http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6457”>raids and
blockades of The Monitor, the country’s only independent newspaper.
#25 – The Iranian
government shuts down a newspaper and arrests journalists for
href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2708”>publishing a 66-year-old
political cartoon. The incident is just one of a string of closures
and arrests.
And some honourable mentions, in no particular order:
– Nigerian police beat anddetain journalists and demonstrators at a union strike in Abuja.
An Associated Press photographer is told he earned his beating by
publishing photographs damaging to the government. – Indian news site Tehelka is href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2682”>hounded into bankruptcy by a
series of government raids and detentions. The harrasment began after
the site published a story about high-level government corruption. – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatens to href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2714”>shut down television and radio
stations for broadcasting opposition commercials. He later
describes television broadcasts as “worse than an atomic bomb.”
Government supporters href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2549”>regularly ransack independent
broadcasters. – CNN executive Eason Jordan describes some of the acts of href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3090”>torture, murder and intimidation
of journalists and their sources by the Iraqi government during the
1990s. Most of these events went unreported at the time, as foreign
media groups faced expulsion if they broadcast material unfavourable to
the Iraqi government. Similar treatment href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3060”>continues through the war;
10 journalists are detained
for the duration. – The FBI seizes a
document couriered by a journalist to the Associated Press offices
in Washington. The document, seized without a warrant, was an
unclassified FBI report. – Malawi’s parliament bans the
television show Big Brother
Africa on the grounds that it displays “immoral behaviour”. The ban
is later overturned as
invalid. – Cuba jams satellite
television broadcasts to Iran. The broadcasts are mostly
independent news and chat shows, privately funded by exiles and
political opponents abroad. The Iranian government had href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3172”>previously been unsuccessful
at blocking reception of the broadcasts from within the country. – A number of Italian magazine and book publishers face bankruptcy
following libel lawsuits
launched by government ministers. In many cases, journalists are
successfully prosecuted for accurately reporting factual information. – The Israeli Defense Force warns several web site operators to href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2977”>submit all material for
review before publishing information about the war in Iraq. – The Chinese government jails
a democracy activist for 5 years on subversion charges for
publishing articles on the web. He is just one of href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/3220”>many activists jailed for
being associated with pro-democracy material. – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sues href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2752”>two newspapers in an attempt
to prevent them from href=”http://vigilant.tv/article/2742”>publishing stories about an
alleged affair.
Finally, we’d like to present an Outstanding Achievement Award to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose dedication to censorship, oppression and political violence serves as a model for murderous dictators everywhere.