CONTENTS

Dangerous Assignments Spring|Summer 2005

Committee to Protect Journalists AS IT HAPPENED Executive Director: Ann Cooper The top press freedom stories...... 2 Deputy Director: Joel Simon IN FOCUS By Leigh Newman Dangerous Assignments A reporter becomes part of a Gaza Strip story ...... 3 Editorial Director: Bill Sweeney Senior Editor: Leigh Newman COMMENTARY By Mick Stern Designer: Virginia Anstett Keep governments away from the Internet ...... 4 Printer: Photo Arts Limited FIRST PERSON By Brian Latham Committee to Protect Journalists A Zimbabwean journalist is forced to flee...... 5 Board of Directors

Honorary Co-Chairmen: FEATURES Walter Cronkite Terry Anderson COVER STORY Chairman: David Laventhol Disappeared By Julia Crawford Vice Chairman: Paul E. Steiger Guy-André Kieffer vanished in Ivory Coast in April 2004, leaving

Andrew Alexander, Franz Allina, questions and conflict on two continents ...... 6 Christiane Amanpour, Dean Baquet, PLUS: The stories of 19 other journalists still missing...... 7 Tom Brokaw, Josh Friedman, Anne Garrels, James C. Goodale, Cheryl Gould, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Surviving Cuba’s Prisons By Sauro González Rodríguez Gwen Ifill, Steven L. Isenberg, Jane After more 20 months in prison, editor Jorge Olivera Castillo Kramer, Anthony Lewis, David describes the brutality behind bars and his hopes for a new life ...... 11 Marash, Kati Marton, Michael Massing, Geraldine Fabrikant Metz, Victor Navasky, Andres Oppenheimer, Under Stress By Elisabeth Witchel Burl Osborne, Charles L. Overby, A new study finds that many journalists suffer from Clarence Page, Norman Pearlstine, Erwin Potts, Dan Rather, Gene post-assignment trauma. News agencies finally step up...... 15 Roberts, Sandra Mims Rowe, John Seigenthaler, and Paul C. Tash Eight Grave Threats to Press Freedom By Amanda Watson-Boles CPJ describes the biggest threats to press freedom worldwide, Published by the Committee to from blatant violence to subtle censorship...... 18 Protect Journalists, 330 Seventh Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001; (212) 465-1004; [email protected]. Rebels and Reporters By Alex Lupis As the Kremlin fights a two-front war in Chechnya—one against Find CPJ online at www.cpj.org. the rebels, the other against reporters—Russians are the losers...... 22 PLUS: Cold War Tactics By Sophia Kishkovsky Russian security agents reach into the old KGB playbook...... 23

ON THE WEB By Kristin Jones Online reporters crack the silence in Nepal ...... 27 DISPATCHES By Rhonda Roumani Syrian journalists push boundaries, tentatively...... 29 CORRESPONDENTS By Sophie Beach On the cover: Guy-André Kieffer Are journalists’ rights on the rise in China?...... 31 (above) was photographed on Easter 1992. The names of the 19 other UPDATE By Dean Bernardo journalists who have gone missing Justice awaits in Philippine journalist’s murder ...... 34 while working are superimposed on the photograph, along with the names CPJ REMEMBERS By Pap Saine of their associated media outlets, and Deyda Hydara held fast to his principles ...... 35 the countries where they disappeared. KICKER By Mick Stern ...... 36 Photo: Kieffer Family Archives Art: Virginia Anstett

Dangerous Assignments 1 AS IT HAPPENED

A look at recent red-letter cases from the CPJ files…

December and Burma—account for more than May three-quarters of the 122 journalists 9 A U.S. judge sentences reporter Jim jailed around the world in 2004, CPJ 3 With at least 18 journalists slain in Taricani (below) to six months of says in a new report. five years, the Philippines is the most home confinement for refusing to murderous nation in the world for reveal the source of a leaked FBI tape. March journalists, CPJ says in a report issued For the first time in three years, the for World Press Freedom Day. Iraq, United States joins CPJ’s list of nations 1 New Ukrainian President Viktor Colombia, Bangladesh, and Russia also that imprison journalists. Yushchenko says investigators have make CPJ’s list of murderous places. I detained suspects in the 2000 murder of Internet reporter Georgy Gongadze— the first significant development in As They Said

o the long-stalled probe. h c o r “Before God, before the people, A

a Italian security agent Nicola Calipari i 4 r

o before my conscience I’m clean.” t c

i is killed and journalist Giuliana Sgrena V

/ —Former Ukrainian President P

A (below) is wounded when U.S. forces Leonid Kuchma to reporters, in fire on their car near the Baghdad air- 21 French reporters Christian Chesnot response to allegations that he port. Kidnappers had released Sgrena and Georges Malbrunot are released was involved in the 2000 murder just minutes earlier. after being held for four months by of journalist Georgy Gongadze. kidnappers in Iraq. Armed groups “You don’t know whom to turn abduct at least 22 journalists in 2004. to for help because officials 26 Dozens of Serambi Indonesia staff and cops are somehow tied to members die in a devastating tsunami organized crime. You don’t hire that strikes south Asia. The daily, one bodyguards because they’re of the few news sources in Indonesia’s expensive, and even if you

war-ravaged Aceh province, resumes s have them, if somebody wants r e t publishing days later. u e you dead, they will find a way R to kill you.” January 22 CPJ urges Bangladeshi Prime Min- —Roberto Gálvez Martínez, news ister Khaleda Zia to put an end to a director at a Nuevo Laredo radio 3 CPJ reports that 56 journalists were wave of violence against journalists. station, to the Dallas Morning News. killed in connection with their work in An alarming number of assaults and The slaying of one of his reporters 2004—the deadliest year in a decade. threats are reported. was among several recent attacks Murder remains the top cause of work- on Mexican journalists. related deaths. April “We were turned to stone when officials told us. The behavior of February 4 Mexican reporter Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla is shot in front of her the American soldiers, in such 1 Nepal’s King Gyanendra declares a radio station in the border town of a serious incident, must be state of emergency, curtails civil rights, Nuevo Laredo. She later dies. That week, explained. Someone must take and institutes broad press restrictions. Gulf Coast newspaper owner Raúl Gibb responsibility.” A CPJ delegation later travels to Kath- Guerrero is ambushed and killed. —Italian Prime Minister Silvio mandu to document abuses and seek Berlusconi on national television 12 CPJ representatives conclude fact- reforms. after U.S. troops wounded jour- finding missions in the Gambia and nalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed 3 Four countries with long records of Nepal by calling for broad govern- security agent Nicola Calipari. press repression—China, Cuba, Eritrea, mental reforms and press protections.

2 Spring | Summer 2005 IN FOCUS s a i l E r i N / s r e t u e R

Southern Gaza Strip

hile covering the aftermath house and opened fire, according to of a gun battle, Itzik Saban international news reports. Reporters Wbecame part of the story. were forced to take cover. As the shoot- Saban, a reporter for the Tel Aviv ing escalated, Saban was shot in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, was sum- leg. The fighting, transmitted live on moned to a press briefing at an army Israeli Army Radio, lasted for a half camp near the isolated Israeli settle- hour before the gunman was killed. s a i l

E ment of Morag. The Israeli commander The Palestinian groups Islamic r i N

/ in the region, Gen. Shmuel Zacai, was Jihad, the Popular Resistance Commit- s r e t

u to announce that four hours earlier tees, and the Ahmed Abu Rish Brigades e R that September 2004 morning, under claimed responsibility for the raid, The the cover of dense fog, three Palestin- New York Times reported. Saban has ian gunmen had infiltrated the camp recovered and is back on the job in and killed three Israeli soldiers. Two of Gaza, Yedioth Ahronoth editors said. the Palestinians had been killed; one Since the second Infatida began in had escaped. 2000, dozens of journalists have been When Saban and other journalists wounded in the West Bank and Gaza, arrived for the briefing, the third Pales- and seven have been killed. I tinian leapt out from behind a green- —Leigh Newman

Dangerous Assignments 3 COMMENTARY

countries, environment, health, gen- because, they argue, governments are der, Internet governance, spam, cyber- more representative. It is hard to say fraud—and freedom of expression. whom the Chinese government repre- Would-be Some results thus far have been sents, other than itself. China now encouraging. The participants pro- possesses the world’s most sophisti- duced a set of principles that reaf- cated system of Internet censorship, Web firms Article 19 of the Universal Dec- including the ability to scan e-mails in laration of Human Rights, which states transit for “subversive” content. It is Masters “that everyone has the right to free- safe to assume that the Chinese con- dom of opinion and expression.” cept of governance has nothing to do The WSIS statement went on to with the free exchange of ideas. By Mick Stern say, “We reaffirm our commitment to The Chinese are not alone in their the principles of freedom of the press attitudes. At a WSIS meeting titled “Free- and freedom of information, as well dom of Expression in Cyberspace,” held beying no power but the pres- as those of the independence, plural- in Paris in February, Yuri Ulianovsky of sure to keep expanding, the ism and diversity of media.” ITAR-TASS, the Russian news agency OInternet has grown like kudzu But this is only one side of WSIS. that bends to the will of the Kremlin, in the absence of international regula- Many participants are deeply dis- told participants that “a regulatory tion. Now the World Summit for the turbed by the decision to allow Tunisia mechanism must exist” to ensure that Information Society, or WSIS, is mov- to host the next conference. Tunisia’s Internet users get “credible information ing to establish international policy for record on media freedom is dismal. from trustworthy sources.” Given Russ- the great digital revolution. Yet any The government blocks dozens of ian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing plan to manage the Internet is at best political Web sites, and jailed online campaign to stifle the independent unnecessary and at worst detrimental writer Zouhair Yahyahoui for a year media, such appeals to credibility and to a medium that gives ordinary peo- and a half for the crime of publishing trustworthiness should be neither ple a public forum to speak their minds. his opinions about the regime. Even as believed nor trusted. A summit backed by some of the censorship continues unabated, Presi- At the same meeting in Paris, world’s worst press freedom abusers— dent Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali flaunts his Ronald Koven of the World Press Free- including China, Russia, and Tunisia— invitation to host the summit as evi- dom Committee argued that the Inter- is itself cause for grave concern. dence that the international community net needs no regulation, noting that The International Telecommunica- condones his strong-arm methods. the question of governance has been tions Union, an agency of the United Other potential hazards loom. The considered before and abandoned. Nations similar in structure to the Working Group on Internet Gover- “Revisiting it would open the doors to World Health Organization, launched nance has a particularly problematic countless dangers,” he said. WSIS. The first major WSIS conference, task. The problems begin with the The Internet, though an unruly in Geneva in 2003, drew more than very definition of “governance.” Does frontier, has democratized communi- 11,000 participants, including repre- it mean control, management, or over- cation and broken down the tradition- sentatives from 175 countries, 50 U.N. sight? Right now, the battle is focused al barrier between news provider and entities, 481 nongovernmental organ- on technical standards, some of which news consumer. Certainly, problems izations, 98 businesses, and 631 the U.S. nonprofit Internet Corpora- exist, such as spam, fraud, and virus- media outlets. In the run-up to the tion for Assigning Names and Num- es. But for all their technological nov- next major gathering—in Tunis, bers, or ICANN, sets. Some WSIS par- elty, these phenomena are basically November 16 through 18, 2005—a ticipants want to internationalize just criminal nuisances; they do not whole galaxy of preparatory confer- ICANN, more out of opposition to the overlap with journalism at any point ences, regional and thematic meet- United States than from any substan- and should not be used as an excuse ings, working groups, and caucuses tive grievances, as ICANN has con- to censor and control the Internet. have been held or are scheduled. Sub- fined itself to technical administration The Internet is still in its infancy, jects under discussion include infra- and has steered clear of politics. The and the summit could influence its structure, technical standards, the Chinese in particular have been firm development in unforeseeable ways. digital divide between rich and poor voices for internationalizing ICANN. If we let WSIS slip by unnoticed, we Participants also have other ideas. could wake up one morning to find Mick Stern is Web master and systems Chinese delegates have stated that the Web run by a set of masters more administrator for the Committee to Pro- governments, not private entities, interested in filtering content than tect Journalists. should be in charge of governance spreading it. I

4 Spring | Summer 2005 FIRST PERSON

from grace. Moyo’s departure, coupled asked for their names. “Call me Captain with a slight relaxation of the heavily Rice,” said the senior officer in a state-controlled press, had given hope derisory reference to U.S. Secretary Fleeing that reporting from Zimbabwe might of State Condoleeza Rice, who had become easier. recently been vilified in Zimbabwe’s But the raid on our office put an state-controlled press. Home end to positive speculation. Police During the day, we received infor- occupied the office all day. We were mation that it would not be safe to kept from working and making phone remain in Zimbabwe, let alone go to A journalist is forced calls while they conducted illegal our homes. Sources within the police into exile as Mugabe searches. Accused of being spies, of and the ruling ZANU-PF party tipped us working illegally as journalists, of com- off that we faced lengthy incarceration. tightens grip. mitting “economic crimes,” and of pub- All three of us fled, using different lishing material detrimental to the roads and border checkpoints, and By Brian Latham state, we faced potentially long prison avoiding the heavily policed Harare sentences. Meanwhile, we were warned, as was our fearless lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, that The Zimbabwean media has been this time “it was for real.” The under siege for years, due to the iron- police wanted to make an fisted rule of President Robert Mugabe. example of us before the par- In February, three journalists working liamentary elections. for international news outlets fled The charges seemed to n

after security officials occupied their change, then change again, at o t g n i offices and told them they would likely the whim of the police officers, r r e h be imprisoned. Most observers believed who refused to give their S h a r that the move was designed to silence names. They told us that they a S critical coverage before the March 31 knew where we lived, that they Brian Latham, exiled from his home in Zimbabwe, parliamentary elections. Brian Latham, knew the registration numbers lives and works in London. a Bloomberg News correspondent, tells of our vehicles. Heavily sarcas- the story from his exile in London: tic and uncaring of criticism, the senior International Airport. By motorbike, I officer told Mtetwa, “If you want, we rode first to collect my passport, which n Valentine’s Day this year, a can get a search warrant; it makes no I’d left at a friend’s house for safekeep- decades-old hub of Zimbab- difference. We will search this place ing, away from the prying eyes of Zim- Owean journalism was suddenly and you will not be present.” babwe’s spy agency, the Central Intelli- closed. The notorious Law and Order They did search, illegally remov- gence Organization. Section of the Zimbabwean police ing hard drives from an AP computer. We fled with nothing, leaving our raided the little Harare office—known Finding news photographs of Mugabe, homes and families, our possessions as the Old Gentleman’s News Cooper- they accused us of “mocking the pres- and responsibilities for the limbo of a ative—that was shared by Bloomberg ident.” After an entire day with the no man’s land. I left behind my four News, The Associated Press, and the police, during which they even fol- children, two still in school, my home Times of London. lowed us to the bathroom, they in the city, and a small cottage in the I was at my desk when I was painstakingly took down our home country. I left the security of my job ordered to stop writing and told to call addresses and cell phone numbers— with Bloomberg News. I left my my colleagues Angus Shaw, a free- the very addresses they had earlier friends, my cat, my two dogs, and my lancer for the AP, and Jan Raath, a con- recited to us. “We will either come to clothes. Even my toothbrush and tributor to the Times. It was a moment you at your homes or summon you to shaving gear were lost in the hurry to we all knew could happen—but we Harare Central Police Station,” the sen- avoid a fetid, lice-ridden prison cell. thought it never would. Things had ior officer told us. Though foreign correspondents, we changed subtly in the weeks before the When Mtetwa asked them what are all Zimbabwean citizens. But now raid. The country’s controversial infor- information they had against us, they we are citizens unable to live and mation minister, Jonathan Moyo, who said, “We do it the other way around. work in our own country. Instead, we had carried out Mugabe’s repressive First we find the suspect, then we get still report on Zimbabwe, but from media policies for years, had fallen the information.” As they left, Raath our country’s burgeoning diaspora. I

Dangerous Assignments 5 COVER STORY e v i h c r Guy-André Kieffer broke a y l i

stories on cocoa, guns, and m a f

alleged corruption. r e f f e i K Disappeared

Politics, money, and the press stir the mysterious case of Guy-André Kieffer.

By Julia Crawford

efore vanishing from the parking lot of an Abidjan told friends and family he had been getting threats and was supermarket on April 16, 2004, Guy-André Kieffer wrote concerned about his safety. Babout the volatile mix of cocoa profits, guns, and poli- The only named suspect in his disappearance is an tics in Ivory Coast. A freelance journalist of French and Cana- Ivoirian businessman related by marriage to the country’s dian descent—and one of the few foreign reporters left in the first family. Michel Legré, in custody since May 2004, conflict-ridden West African nation—Kieffer had a hand in claimed in questioning before a French judge that a num- business himself as a consultant and adviser. Just two years ber of people close to President Laurent Gbagbo were into his stay in the former French colony, he had collected a involved, several news organizations reported and an wide network of political and business connections. Ivoirian official confirmed for CPJ. Yet no other suspects And, by his own account, Kieffer had gathered some have been arrested and some witnesses have been hard to enemies. In the days before he disappeared and his normally find. Legré’s reported testimony has ignited speculation busy cell phone suddenly went dead, the 54-year-old Kieffer that Kieffer’s disappearance was a state-sponsored crime, although investigators are also said to be considering a per- Julia Crawford is CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. Alexis sonal money matter or grudge as a possible motive. Arieff, Africa program research associate, contributed to With its many unanswered questions, the case has this story. stirred political intrigue and charges of government

6 Spring | Summer 2005 obstruction on two continents. The investigation has French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mat- appeared to sputter at times as relations worsened between tei denied such allegations. “There is absolutely no desire France and its former colony—leaving Kieffer’s family and to hamper [Ramaël’s] movements in any way,” he told CPJ. friends to fight for the truth. Ale Yéo, chief of staff for the Ivoirian justice minister, said “This case has always been politicized. The fate of Guy- the two countries were cooperating well on the judicial André Kieffer is a nuisance to Franco-Ivoirian relations,” his inquiry. “Each time that Judge Ramaël asked for authoriza- wife, Osange, said from Paris where she lives with the cou- tion to come to Abidjan it was granted. And he has been ple’s 18-year-old daughter. Although most people believe he able to carry out investigations without any problems from is dead, she has not abandoned hope. the Justice Ministry,” Yéo said. “But some of the people he “As long as they have not produced his body, I will not wanted to question refused to answer the summons. And say that my husband is dead,” Osange Kieffer said. He is some have disappeared.” one of 20 journalists whose disappearances over more Aline Richard, Kieffer’s friend and colleague for 15 than two decades may have been linked to their work, CPJ years at the French business newspaper La Tribune, said research shows. she believes he was targeted for his investigations into sen- sitive business issues. Kieffer was considered a specialist in ooperation between France and Ivory Coast on the Kieffer Ccase has been complicated by the two countries’ long his- tory, as well as their recently strained relations. Ivory Coast Kieffer’s family and friends accuse was a French colony for more than 60 years, and ties between it and France remained strong even after its independence in both the Ivoirian and French 1960. But tensions have risen since the Ivoirian civil war governments of obstructing the began in 2002. Ivoirian government supporters have accused France of supporting the rebels, and the two countries briefly investigation for political reasons. engaged in hostile actions last year. Nevertheless, the nations are still bound by a number of agreements—including one that pledges them to coop- the profitable cocoa and coffee sectors, and worked briefly erate on certain judicial investigations such as the Kieffer as a consultant for a company that advised the Ivoirian gov- case. In interviews with CPJ, Kieffer’s family and friends ernment on reforming the cocoa trade. expressed confidence in the efforts of the French investi- Kieffer had undertaken several investigative stories, gating judge, Patrick Ramaël, but accused both the Ivoirian notably one that explored the alleged use of cocoa profits and French governments of obstructing the investigations for arms purchases, according to the Paris-based business for political reasons. newsletter La Lettre du Continent, to which Kieffer was a

Kazem Akhavan, s s

been holding the n n o i o i The Missing IRNA, July 4, 1982, t t journalist. a a u u t i t

Lebanon i S S e e

Akhavan, a photog- m m

Mohamed e e r r t

At least 19 other journalists t rapher for Iran’s x x Hassaine, Alger E E n i n have gone missing since CPJ official news agency, Républicain, i m m s i s l was seized at a i l began compiling case files March 1, 1994, a a n n r r

checkpoint near u u

Algeria o J more than two decades ago. o J r

Byblos. Initial theo- r o o

Hassaine, a reporter, f f

Detailed reports are available r r

ries centered on e e t

was seized by t n n e at www.cpj.org. Here are their Phalangist militiamen, e C

unknown assailants. C brief stories: but a 1998 story in Four years later, Maksim Shabalin Feliks Titov the Israeli newspaper CPJ conducted discovered no Maksim Shabalin Ha’aretz raised interviews in the evidence of his and Feliks Titov, speculation that capital, Algiers, but whereabouts. Nevskoye Vremya, Israel could have

Dangerous Assignments 7 freelance contributor. His last story concerned a payment to Guinea- Bissau from a frozen bank account belonging to that country’s late former dictator Ansumane Mane. Kieffer’s story charged that some Ivoirian officials took commissions from the account, according to La Lettre du Continent. While not ruling out the possi- bility that such stories led to Kief- fer’s disappearance, Stephen Smith, Africa editor of the French daily Le Monde, is more circumspect. Smith told CPJ that Kieffer was “walking a borderline” between journalism and business, and that he some- m a d times used his reporting to influ- y u Z n

ence business deals. In a May 5, a v k l

2004 article, Le Monde said that Anti-French protests in Abidjan in fall 2004 strained relations between Ivory a h c S

Coast and France, making cooperation in the Kieffer case more difficult. /

Kieffer “informed some people, P A advised others and, under transpar- ent pseudonyms, went hammer and tongs for senior person- Legré told Le Monde in May 2004 that Kieffer did not turn alities, without worrying unduly about the possible dangers.” up for their lunch appointment but had called to say that he was at the nearby Prima supermarket, where Legré met rance opened a judicial inquiry into Kieffer’s disappear- him in the parking lot. “He was nervous, tense,” Legré told Fance in May 2004, after his wife filed a complaint in a Paris Le Monde. “He told me only that he was due to meet a white court. Ramaël went to Abidjan that month to begin his probe guy who had owed him money for a long time, and that he and questioned Legré, the brother-in-law of Ivory Coast’s first planned to go to Ghana for the weekend.” Legré told Le lady, Simone Gbagbo, and a regular source for Kieffer. Monde that he left without asking further questions. Legré was due to meet Kieffer for lunch the day he dis- During 10 hours of questioning before the French judge, appeared and is the last person known to have seen him. Legré identified a number of senior defense, security, and

February 27, 1995, s went to Chechnya to was last seen leaving service, left Kigali fighting between n o i t

Russia a look for colleagues Grozny. U.S. Embassy for Uganda and Russian and u t i

Shabalin, assistant S Shabalin and Titov. officials made has not been heard Chechen forces. e m

political editor of e He vanished repeated trips to the from since. Petrova, a senior r t x

the St. Petersburg E after entering a region to no avail. executive of Lita-M, n daily, and Titov, a i mountainous region, Vitaly Shevchenko, was also reported m s i l

photographer, were a said Alla Manilova, Manasse Mugabo, Andrei Bazvluk, missing after n r

reported missing u the editor-in-chief. United Nations and Yelena Petrova, failing to contact o J r

in Chechnya after o Assistance Lita-M, her studio. f r e

leaving Nazran for t Andrew Shumack, Mission in Rwanda August 11, 1996, n e

their fifth trip to C freelancer, Radio, Russia Emmanuel the republic. Sergei Ivanov July 28, 1995, August 19, 1995, Shevchenko and Munyemanzi, June 16, 1995, Russia Rwanda Bazvluk, Ukrainian Rwandan National Sergei Ivanov, Russia Shumack, an Ameri- Mugabo, director television journalists, Television, Nevskoye Vremya, Ivanov, a correspon- can working for the of the UNAMIR radio were last seen in May 2, 1998, dent for the paper, St. Petersburg Press, Grozny during heavy Rwanda

8 Spring | Summer 2005 finance officials as being involved in the disappearance, Richard said she believes France is unwilling to pres- Yéo said. Of those named, each has publicly denied involve- sure the Ivoirian authorities for fear of further damaging ment, and none has officially been declared a suspect. relations with President Gbagbo, whom it sees as a necessary Investigators have questioned most of the officials, Yéo partner in the fragile peace process. said, although they have been unable to find two soldiers Such concerns prompted Richard to set up the Truth for named by Legré. Ramaël declined comment when contacted Guy-André Kieffer Association. Composed mainly of jour- by CPJ, citing judicial confidentiality rules. nalists, the group has launched a petition on its Web site call- Shortly after the French investigation started, Ivoirian ing on the French and Ivoirian governments to “employ every authorities launched their own inquiry. They arrested Legré possible effort to find the truth.” The association collects and charged him as an accessory in the kidnapping, confine- information about the case, lobbies the governments, and ment, and—though no body has been produced—murder of encourages media coverage. Kieffer. The French judge has also charged Legré with com- Osange Kieffer, who has met with Ramaël, accused the plicity in Kieffer’s kidnap and confinement. French authorities of trying to stall the judge’s investigation One of Legré’s lawyers, Alain Assamoi, told CPJ that and block Legré’s transfer. An official from the French Foreign Ramaël had pressured his client into linking government Ministry said that any delays were due to normal proce- officials to the disappearance, and that Legré had later dures and that the transfer request was being processed. retracted the assertions. He said his client had pleaded not “I know the judges and I believe they are interested in guilty to all charges. finding the truth,” Le Monde editor Smith said. “But I think Véhi Étienne, a presidential adviser, said allegations link- it embarrasses the two governments and there is extreme ing senior officials to Kieffer’s disappearance were “part of tension between the two governments.” propaganda campaigns seeking to soil the image of the pres- The strain was at its worst last November when Ivoirian ident” and were promoted by “media close to the opposition government air attacks on rebel positions killed nine and to the armed rebellion.” He added, “There are several French peacekeepers. The French retaliated by destroying possible trails outside of the investigation pursued by the most of the small Ivoirian air force. This action led to vio- French judge,” including ones implicating “foreign citizens lent anti-French demonstrations in Abidjan that were who have nothing to do with the president.” fueled by state-owned media. Thousands of expatriates Citing the two countries’ judicial cooperation agreement, fled the country. Ramaël has requested that Legré be transferred to France Despite a peace agreement brokered by France in early for two months of questioning. But at the end of February, 2003, Ivory Coast remains divided between a rebel-held Ramaël returned from a fourth visit to Abidjan without the north and a government-controlled south. Most foreign suspect. Legré remained in prison in Abidjan when Danger- reporters have left the country for security reasons, espe- ous Assignments went to press. cially after the October 2003 murder of Radio France Inter-

Munyemanzi, head Djuro Slavuj, Belmonde Magloire had ties to the of production Radio Pristina, Missinhoun, government of services, disappeared August 21, 1998, Le Point Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko, in Kigali. Two Serbia and October 3, 1998, which had fallen months earlier, the Montenegro Democratic a year earlier. i director of the Slavuj, a reporter at Republic of t s o s v e

Rwanda Information the state-run Radio Congo Oleksandr Panych, o v N i h e

Office had accused Pristina, and his Missinhoun, owner Donetskiye Novosti, c y r i A k s y him of sabotage driver disappeared of the independent November 2002, t l i e n m o because of a on assignment in financial newspaper, Ukraine a F D technical problem Kosovo. Having has not been seen Panych, a journalist Oleksandr Panych Fred Nerac during the taping left Orahovac, they since his arrest and manager for of a political were en route to after a traffic the daily newspaper, of Donetsk. He wrote Fred Nerac, debate. Malisevo. accident with a disappeared from about drugs and ITV News, military vehicle in the southeastern city business issues. March 22, 2003, Kinshasa. Missinhoun Iraq

Dangerous Assignments 9 nationale correspondent Jean Hélène by an Ivoirian police officer. Hélène’s murder was widely blamed on anti-French sentiments that were whipped up by local media and pro- government forces.

ichard complains that Kieffer’s case has received less Rattention from the French government and media than those of journalists Florence Aubenas, Christian Chesnot, and Georges Malbrunot, who were abducted in Iraq. Aube- nas, who works for the independent daily Libération, was taken in Baghdad with her Iraqi translator on January 5. Chesnot of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Malbrunot of independent daily Le Figaro were released in December after being held captive for four months by an Iraqi insur- gent group. “I think it’s absolutely normal that people mobilize for Aubenas, Chesnot and Malbrunot,” Richard told CPJ. “What is not normal is that they don’t do the same for Kieffer. … If you are a freelance and you go missing, it’s more difficult.” The vast majority of the 20 journalists on CPJ’s missing list disappeared in conflict zones such as Chechnya, Koso- n o i

vo, and Iraq; others vanished in remote areas where there t a i c

is little media attention. Nearly all went missing in places o s s A

where the rule of law is weak, the judiciary ineffective, and r e f f e i

the government indifferent to solving such cases. K é r

Left behind are the journalists’ families who, in most d n A - y

cases, have few credible details to help them understand u G r

what may have happened. They have little to cling to but o f h t u

the fight itself—the struggle to keep their cases on govern- r T ment agendas and in the headlines. The Truth for Guy-André Kieffer Association displays posters “It’s very, very important,” Osange Kieffer said, “because in Paris bookstores saying: “We have not forgotten. We demand it means the cloak of silence cannot fall.” I the truth.”

Nerac, a cameraman Acquitté Kisembo, Ali Astamirov, Reda Helal, Isam al-Shumari, for the British news Agence France- Agence France- Al-Ahram, Sudost Media, organization, Presse, June 26, Presse, August 11, 2003, August 15, 2004, disappeared when 2003, Democratic July 4, 2003, Egypt Iraq his car came under Republic of Congo Russia Helal, an editor with Al-Shumari, a cam- fire en route to Kisembo, a fixer Astamirov, a corre- Egypt’s semiofficial eraman for the small Basra. A security and reporter, was spondent, was seized daily, was last production company, firm hired by the reported missing by gunmen when he seen entering his is believed to have news agency said in Bunia. Local stopped for gas in home in Cairo. Helal disappeared in Fallu- that Nerac and journalists say Nazran, in the repub- was considered jah. Relatives said he

translator Hussein militiamen loyal to lic of Ingushetia. P controversial by was traveling with F A Othman might the rebel Union of Astamirov reported Ali Astamirov some because of his cameraman Mah- have been pulled Congolese Patriots on sensitive issues support for the U.S.- moud Abbas, who from their car by may have seized such as the war in harassment by police led war in Iraq. was killed in heavy Iraqi forces. Kisembo. Chechnya and had and security forces. fighting. I endured months of

10 Spring | Summer 2005 A CPJ Interview t u a D a i d u a l C / s r e t u e R

Jorge Olivera Castillo and his wife, Nancy Alfaya, reunite in their Havana home after the editor’s December 2004 release. Surviving Cuba’s Prisons

Unbowed, Jorge Olivera Castillo emerges from jail or the crime of reporting the news, Jorge Olivera Castillo spent most of two to speak out. years in the hellish conditions of Cuba’s prisons. The director of a small Findependent news agency, the Havana Press, Olivera Castillo was one of 29 journalists arrested in a massive government crackdown on dissidents and the By Sauro González independent media in March 2003. He was convicted in a one-day, closed-door Rodríguez proceeding under a law prohibiting acts “aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system.” Olivera Castillo was sentenced to 18 years in prison, parts of which he spent in State Security Department confinement at Villa Marista, the Guantánamo provincial prison, the Guantánamo provincial hospital, and a prison infirmary in western Matanzas province. Freed last December 6, he was among a half dozen, imprisoned journalists released on medical parole in 2004. After his release, the 43-year-old editor discussed with CPJ his early career in the state media, his pro- fessional evolution, his imprisonment, and his plans for the future. Here are translated excerpts of his interview with CPJ’s Sauro González Rodríguez:

Sauro González Rodríguez is research associate for CPJ’s Americas program.

Dangerous Assignments 11 SGR: Tell us about your work for the official media. SGR: Would you describe your arrest?

JOC: From 1983 to 1993, I worked at the Cuban Institute for JOC: I was at my wife’s aunt’s house napping when plain- Radio and Television as an editor. During the decade I clothes agents showed up with a search warrant. My wife worked at this state-owned entity, I spent two years in the woke me up, a bit scared, and they all came in and carried national television news system where news programs, out an exhaustive search. They took many pictures of every- news reports are made. I had a close experience with all the thing they confiscated, which wasn’t much: two old, worn- censorship, the self-censorship, and all the news manipula- out typewriters and many news stories; books on politics, tion that takes place in the official media. economics, even world literature; and a small 8mm cam- corder. When we went downstairs to go to my house, the SGR: Describe this climate of self-censorship. street was blocked. There were several police cars and JOC: Propaganda is very tightly controlled by a Central motorbikes; it was a huge police operation. People were ter- Committee agency called the Revolutionary Orientation rified, and many were watching from their balconies. Department, where information and indoctrination policies The search at my house was very similar. While they are designed. All media are subordinated to the strategies were searching, one of them turned on a radio and tuned in devised by this agency. People fear crossing a line—they the “Mesa Redonda” talk show—which was talking about us, don’t know where it is or what the limits are—and that’s about the crackdown taking place at the same time at many where self-censorship comes in. They censor themselves homes in Cuba, and they were using epithets to denigrate for fear of retaliation. and slander us. Around 10, 10:30 p.m., I arrived in Villa Marista, where they carried out a thorough body search and SGR: When and why did you decide to join the independent gave me prisoner’s clothes. press? SGR: Were you expecting the arrest? JOC: One thing that had a profound effect were the events during perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union. That JOC: I wasn’t expecting it, honestly. I thought it would be opened my eyes, made me ask myself some questions what had happened many times before. When the political and search for answers. I began maturing as time went police didn’t want me to cover an event, they would simply by, and then I was faced with how to break the barrier of knock on my door and tell me I couldn’t leave. I thought it fear, of terror, which is something natural in Cuba, part was routine harassment. I never thought it would be the of our culture. beginning of a terrible period in the history of Cuba.

SGR: Tell us about your experiences in prison. I thought it was routine harassment. JOC: To feel that you’re imprisoned, are surrounded by walls and bars everywhere, without reason, it’s a double I never thought it would be the shock that you suffer. I spent 36 days in a cell with com- beginning of a terrible period in mon criminals in Villa Marista. The four of us could not stand at the same time, that’s how small the cell was. There Cuban history. was no ventilation and we had a fluorescent lamp on 24 hours a day. The bathroom was a hole; the smell was unbearable. SGR: Can you describe for us how independent journalism Then the trial came. The trial was a sham, a grotesque is done in Cuba? sham. I only saw my lawyer 10 to 15 minutes before my court hearing was to start. I felt I had been convicted in JOC: We face shortages of materials, a lack of information advance. Thank God I had the strength of character and sources. Everything conspires against you; everything is so could face such a difficult situation. I did not keep silent. I adverse, particularly the way to send your reports abroad. defended myself against all the allegations prosecutors There’s no computer network cheap enough for us to send made, full of visceral hatred—I can’t forget that. I refuted our reports; phone communications are terrible. all of them. Nevertheless, we have been able to articulate a nation- Then there was the distance. I was sent over 900 kilo- wide movement of independent journalists. We even pub- meters (560 miles) from my place of residence, which was lished a magazine that was shut down with our imprison- an additional punishment for my wife and my children. I ment, De Cuba magazine, which was developed by the jour- was first at the Combinado Provincial de Guantánamo, and nalists’ association Sociedad de Periodistas Manuel Márquez we were placed with common prisoners for 17 days. Then Sterling. The persecution, harassment, economic adversi- we were placed in solitary confinement. We had an hour a ties, lack of proper technology—a number of factors con- day to get some sun. I began having pain in my bones, due spired against our doing a quality job. to the cell’s humidity and the lack of sunlight. I was sick all

12 Spring | Summer 2005 a i t i o G e s o J / P A Jorge Olivera Castillo, right, and Miguel Galban edit the independent magazine De Cuba, which ran articles on race and reform.

of one year. The food arrived rotten sometimes, and the was a snack. I was like any other patient, except that I water was muddy and brown. I contracted parasites twice. I remained jailed at a ward for prisoners, living with com- would tell the doctor, “Look, the food is poorly prepared mon prisoners, which was not easy. But at least there was and sometimes rotten. The water is contaminated; we more ventilation. should not drink it.” And she would say, “That’s not my SGR: How was your relationship with other prisoners? problem. My problem is if you get sick.” And there were lots of insects: mosquitoes, scorpions, JOC: You have to apply a lot of psychology. You may get flies, ants, lizards. It was a terrible situation. All amid the stabbed, because they traffic in pills and prisoners get indifference, the indolence by the medical services and the high, particularly in Guantánamo. There’s also trafficking in prison officers. I was later placed in a cell with common knives. They make them at the prison and sell them for cig- prisoners—pedophiles and murderers. Something terribly arettes. Fights also break out, and you may be wounded— harsh and brutal goes on in Cuban prisons. that’s very common. It’s a very difficult coexistence. I didn’t Hunger, alienation, the guards’ willingness to beat up have any problems with common prisoners, but it’s a prisoners who in many cases do not deserve it—the prison- potential problem, particularly for political prisoners and ers become so alienated that they turn to self-mutilation. I prisoners of conscience in Cuba. saw two people make a hot paste by melting plastic shop- SGR: What medical problems did you suffer? ping bags, and then put their hands inside this substance. They lost their hands, which were amputated, and were JOC: I suffer from a colon disorder, and I need to avoid released on medical parole. Other people stab themselves; stress. The pain in my lower abdomen is terrible, and I may swallow wires, small spoons; take fluids that are harmful to have bouts of diarrhea. All of this upsets my nerves, and it their digestive system. To sum it up, it’s a world of horror. becomes a vicious cycle because then I have another crisis. After being jailed for a year, I was transferred to the I also suffered from high blood pressure, apparently Guantánamo Provincial Hospital. This happened a year because of stress and the harsh conditions. Like I said, I after I had been requesting adequate medical attention. barely caught any sunlight during all the time I was jailed. During the time I spent at the hospital, conditions When I was at the hospital, I would ask my guards, “Please, improved. I would receive the hospital’s food, and there handcuff me and take me outdoors.” But they would reply,

Dangerous Assignments 13 “No, no, because of security concerns.” So I would talk to the doctor and I would tell the guards they should give me at least an hour outdoors, and sometimes the guards would give me an hour, or half an hour, or nothing.

SGR: Were you aware of the international protests over the imprisonments?

JOC: You don’t know how important it is for a political pris- oner, for a prisoner of conscience to feel and see through your family and through phone calls what people were doing. We were desperate. I would ask my relatives what

CPJ was doing, what Reporters Without Borders was doing, a i t i o

what the Inter American Press Association was doing, what G e s o

Amnesty International was doing, what many other people, J / P including politicians and people of good will, were doing. A That was very important from a spiritual point of view, Nancy Alfaya comforts Gisela Delgado, wife of dissident Hector to strengthen ourselves in those conditions and endure Palacios, in front of the Havana courthouse in April 2003, as they learn that their husbands have been sentenced to prison. them. And this should not let up; it’s crucial for those jour- nalists who are still in jail in conditions similar to those I ment won’t take drastic measures, although smaller in have described. Their minds may be affected and so their scale. They could imprison three, four persons every few bodies may be. months, and it wouldn’t draw international attention.

SGR: Do you feel inhibited from working as a journalist again? One thing I know for sure: I’ll never JOC: I have a refugee visa and I’m not a healthy person. I’m renounce my principles. I will always thinking about my family. I have been 12 years, including support a plural, inclusive society those two in prison, trying to create a space and I think we have been successful in establishing an independent press, wherever I am. a cornerstone of a future democracy. It’s been 12 years I have invested in this, and now I have to think about my family, my children. SGR: How did your family cope during your imprisonment? SGR: What are your plans for the future? JOC: If you suffer in jail, your family suffers much more. JOC: I think one day I’ll be able to leave Cuba. I don’t know Here, I have only my wife and my two children. My wife had how I’m going to do in the United States; I don’t know whether to solve every problem and take care of the family—and I will settle there permanently. I would like to keep writing, she never stopped caring about me and denouncing all the working as a television editor, but I know it won’t be easy. injustices against me. Because of the distance to the prison, First I want to protect my family, my children, and above all, sometimes my family struggled to buy the transportation I want to cope better with my illness. One thing I do know for fare. They also struggled to provide for themselves, and sure: I’ll never renounce my principles. I will always support bring things to me despite such a long trip. But my family a plural, inclusive society wherever I am. Nobody should be stuck together. discriminated against because of his or her ideology. And all SGR: What is your view on the government crackdown and ideological lines should have their own media, their own way everything that has happened since? of expressing ideas and sharing them with other people. I will always defend these ideas. I took them up one day, haven’t JOC: I don’t think the crackdown was very successful. The renounced them, and never will—let alone now. international reaction has been very strong, massive, and I sustained. I think the government underestimated that, and it has caused the government to lose a very large amount Crackdown on the Independent Press of prestige. The independent press has moved forward, and More than 100 prominent Latin American journalists so have the trade unions, political parties, and human and writers have joined CPJ in calling for the release of rights activists. So, I believe that in political terms the gov- the many Cuban journalists still imprisoned. For ernment hasn’t won anything. updates on CPJ’s campaign to free these journalists, However, the language of confrontation persists and visit “Crackdown on the Independent Press in Cuba” at this is very dangerous. We can’t rule out that the govern- www.cpj.org.

14 Spring | Summer 2005 Under Stress

News organizations step up help for journalists who encounter trauma.

By Elisabeth Witchel a t t a D o k r A / s r e t u e R After the December 2004 tsunami, Arko Datta photographed many heartbreaking moments, such as this Indian couple mourning the death of their 8-year-old son.

aily News photographer David Handschuh was dangerous assignments. Depression, anxiety, alcoholism, shooting through the haze and horror of the Sep- and relationship problems have also been reported. Dtember 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center Media organizations have long made counseling avail- when the south tower collapsed, blowing him down the able to staffers, but analysts say newsrooms have been slow block and burying him in debris. While his badly broken leg in adopting the extensive trauma support and training long required months of recuperation, he is “still dealing with used by other “first-response” organizations such as med- what I paid witness to that day.” ical care and disaster relief agencies. On assignment in south India after the December 2004 Now, several large news companies say they have tsunami, Reuters photographer Arko Datta was stopped short begun more sophisticated and proactive programs to sup- by the sight of a young boy clinging to his dead mother. port staffers exposed to trauma. Many of these efforts have Experienced as he was in covering disasters, that awful memory lingers. Working for months in Iraq, New York Times reporter Jeff Journalists in Iraq experienced three Gettleman felt the grinding toll of seeing bodies blown apart in the suicide bombings and violent attacks that life-threatening events in the first became part of everyday life. “You have access there,” Gettle- weeks of coverage. man said, “to things you shouldn’t see.” News organizations and journalism groups are begin- ning to widely acknowledge that many photographers, been accelerated in the past four years, after the 9/11 reporters, and cameramen do not come away from such attacks, the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, and the trauma-filled assignments emotionally unscathed. New wars in Afghanistan and Iraq drove home the vulnerabili- research, including a study released in April, found three in ties of journalists. The most ambitious programs go 10 journalists suffer post-traumatic stress after working on beyond standard offers of counseling to include pre- and post-assignment briefings for staffers, trauma awareness Elisabeth Witchel is CPJ’s journalist assistance program training for news managers, time off for journalists return- coordinator. ing from the field, and in-the-field counseling.

Dangerous Assignments 15 But more can be done. These efforts have yet to spread responsible for at-risk staff to recognize when a journalist through the entire news industry or to many parts of the is having difficulties and offer peer support, said Dipti world. Freelancers are often left on their own. And in a Patel, occupational health physician for the BBC. deadline-driven field, where personal detachment is con- Five years ago, after the killing of Reuters correspon- sidered a virtue, there is still little space in newsroom culture dent Kurt Schork in Sierra Leone had deeply affected his for journalists dealing with trauma. colleagues, the news agency stepped up efforts to teach managers how to recognize and cope with trauma, accord- ard-drinking, swaggering, divorced war correspon- ing to Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger. “The main Hdents may be a common stereotype, but proof of their problem for us,” he said, “has been getting past the idea existence was largely anecdotal until 2002 when the Amer- that journalists are tough and macho and to get them to ican Journal of Psychiatry published a study led by Anthony recognize that it is OK to talk about their problems.” Feinstein of the University of Toronto. The study of 140 Schlesinger said Reuters’ staffers talk more frequently now combat journalists—titled “A Hazardous Profession: War, with professional counselors and their colleagues. Journalists, and Psychopathology”—concluded that nearly Other organizations that have strengthened support 30 percent of the participants showed serious signs of efforts include National Public Radio, which offers counsel- post-traumatic stress. They were not likely to get treat- ing and time off to all journalists returning from danger ment, either. zones, and the AP, which began offering staffers interna- Feinstein released a follow-up study in April that tional access to counselors. focused on journalists covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Collecting data in July 2003 from embedded and unilateral ddressing job-related trauma is imperative at a time journalists, he concluded that a third were psychologically Awhen professional demands and dangers are higher distressed. Using a mean, Feinstein said that participants than ever, Handschuh said. “There’s a cumulative effect to experienced three life-threatening events in the first weeks what we witness—and add to that the 24-hour news cycle.” of war coverage. “Covering the tsunami was like going through an emo- tional roller-coaster,” said Datta, whose photographs of devastated south India appeared in Time, Newsweek, and The 24-hour news cycle—and the The Economist. Datta said the experience did not differ much from other disasters, all of which “are difficult to technology that has made it cover logistically and emotionally,” but noted that he came possible to relay news and images across several scenes that stopped him in his tracks. “Hav- ing lost my mother recently, watching a particular instance instantly—has exposed journalists of people trying to pull away a boy clinging on to his dead to greater risks. mother, was too painful for me.” Iraq—where 41 journalists have been killed and 30 abducted as of April—poses basic survival risks. “Every day “Feinstein’s [2002] study was very important to this in Iraq, I was nostalgic for Afghanistan,” said Gettleman, of issue. There was really nothing before that,” said Santiago The New York Times, who covered the U.S.-led attack on Lyon, director of photography at The Associated Press. Afghanistan in 2001 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq. Lyon, a veteran war photographer who covered conflicts in “Even though Afghanistan had dangers, journalists were not El Salvador, the Balkans, the first Gulf War, Afghanistan, and targets.” Gettleman was abducted in Iraq and held by gun- Somalia, has grappled with post-traumatic stress himself men for a day in April 2004. “The stress that puts you and and has seen it among his staffers. “In recent years, media everyone working around you under is enormous,” he said. organizations have gotten much better at helping journal- AP’s Lyon said the 24-hour news cycle—and the technol- ists cope with stress and trauma.” ogy that has made it possible to relay news and images In February, prompted by a request from a veteran war instantly—has exposed journalists to greater risk for longer, correspondent, The New York Times began a program to unbroken periods. Journalists in prior conflicts had to file help journalists in the field cope more effectively. It from offices or other serene settings; digital photography includes trauma briefings for editors and news managers; a and satellite communication now both allow and encourage hotline for journalists’ families; and pre-assignment and them to file from the scene. Factor in the continuous news exit briefings for all staffers working in high-risk areas. cycle, and journalists are never truly off deadline. The British Broadcasting Company, using recommenda- tions from the British Ministry of Defense, has put its ttitudes about trauma are slowly changing, said Roger emphasis on management. A program launched in fall 2004 ASimpson, executive director of the Dart Center for aims to train all BBC managers, team leaders, and editors Journalism & Trauma at the University of Washington. “A

16 Spring | Summer 2005 s w e N y l i a D / l e s i a M d d o T When the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, Daily News photographer David Handschuh was badly injured. The memories of that day have stayed with him.

decade ago,” he said, “we sometimes met hostile responses Across the world, local journalists in conflict zones face from corporate personnel people. That almost never hap- extraordinary stress and personal danger. CPJ has tracked pens today.” several cases in which these local journalists received help But counseling alone is not enough, Simpson said. “Man- for emotional scars only after relocating to safer places. Sri agement often fails to create a climate of support and Lankan journalist Dharma Lingham, whose life was threat- respect for counseling among their journalists,” he said. ened after he exposed human rights abuses by the Libera- And while a handful of “leaders in the industry” are pro- tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said he noticed symptoms of moting better trauma management, Simpson said, those psychological distress only after he left the country. practices have yet to spread throughout the news business. Not only do journalists suppress trauma to survive, in Simpson said everyone in a news operation should many of the world’s troubled places, help is simply not receive training about safety and trauma, and editors available. “As far as I know there is no concept of counsel- should ensure that they are in touch with every journalist ing for post-traumatic stress,” said Owais Aslam Ali, secre- in a dangerous situation, as well as their families. After tary general of the Pakistan Press Foundation. “Close family media workers complete assignments, a formal program to structure in our society may help a bit, but it is not a sub- continue discussion should be made available. Dart also stitute for professional counseling.” cautions against sending journalists back into dangerous In the United States, however, work-related trauma, assignments too soon. once mentioned in hushed tones, is being addressed more Freelance journalists remain at particular risk. “They regularly in public. At its annual conference this year, Mili- don’t have much support and they risk a lot in war and con- tary Reporters and Editors (MRE), a U.S.-based association, flict situations,” Simpson said. “There is a huge need for will feature a panel on the subject for the first time. this underserved group.” The Nieman Foundation has also chosen trauma as the Freelance journalists typically find it harder to secure theme of its two-day conference this October. “There is a affordable counseling than do staff journalists. Some free- great responsibility to learn from the research out there,” lancers can obtain counseling through their own health said Stefanie Friedhoff, a freelance journalist and organiz- insurance plans, if the plans are broad enough to cover er of the conference co-sponsored by the Dart Center. “If such issues. But only a handful of media organizations help almost a third [of journalists] come back with trauma, we freelancers cover the costs of such insurance. have to do something about it.” I

Dangerous Assignments 17 Reuters cameraman Bassam Masoud is wounded during clashes between Palestinian and Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip town of Rafa. r e z e

S 12345678 d a r u M / P A

A Turkish journalist raises his handcuffed hands during a March protest against the country’s new, vaguely worded penal code.

18 Spring | Summer 2005 Eight Grave Threats to Press Freedom

Compiled by Amanda Watson-Boles a i t i o

Guards staff the gate of Cuba’s Combinado Del Este where G e s o

journalists are jailed for antistate activities. J / P A a r m a

H journalist’s murder makes headlines for good reason. Killings, especially l i l a

h those that go unpunished, pose a terrible threat to a free press. Other K / s r

e Athreats are more subtle—legal manipulation, indifference to safety, indi- t u e

R rect censorship—but they are debilitating in their own way. Based on the Com- mittee to Protect Journalists’ work worldwide, here is our assessment of the eight grave threats to press freedom today.

Killers Go Free In the last decade, more than 250 journalists have been murdered for their 5678 work—often to prevent them from reporting on corruption or human rights abuses, or to punish them after they have done so. In more than 85 percent of these cases, CPJ found, the killers went unpunished. At least 60 victims were threatened beforehand.

Amanda Watson-Boles, CPJ’s former senior editor, is a copy editor at Slate magazine.

Dangerous Assignments 19 Photojournalist Mazen Dana was killed in Iraq when his camera was mistaken for a rocket- propelled grenade launcher. n u o m a l h s a H f e y y a b N a / N s r l e e t d u b e A R n i d a l A

Information ministries across the world, such as the Yemeni one / s r e

pictured above, are often used to impede the flow of news. t u e R

This deadly cycle is reinforced every time another jour- While war zones will always be dangerous, all militaries nalist is attacked with no response from authorities. The should take steps to reduce the danger for journalists. To culture of impunity is most visible—and most shocking—in the extent possible, commanders should ensure that soldiers the Philippines, where at least 48 journalists have been in the field are aware when and where journalists are work- killed for their work since 1986. No one has been convict- ing. Military rules of engagement should take into account ed in any of the cases. journalists’ presence. When a death does occur, militaries The situation can be changed. After a campaign organ- must conduct timely and credible investigations and take ized by the media and citizens, Mozambique brought to action in cases of misconduct. justice the killers of reporter Carlos Cardoso, who was mur- dered in 2000. And in the Ukraine, sustained public scrutiny ‘Antistate’ Laws Used to Silence of the unsolved 2000 killing of Internet journalist Georgy By the end of 2004, laws banning “antistate” activity landed Gongadze helped bring about progress in the long-stalled 74 journalists behind bars worldwide. Allegations of antis- murder probe. tate activity were made in 14 additional cases in which formal charges were not made public, CPJ found. These laws address Conflict Made Riskier activities such as subversion, sedition, divulging state secrets, In conflict zones, journalists can be deliberately targeted or and acting against the interests of the state—but time after killed in crossfire. Deliberately targeting civilians, includ- time in these cases, the laws were used to silence journal- ing members of the press, is a war crime, and any failure to ists critical of their governments. properly investigate and prosecute offenders only encour- While countries have the right to prosecute citizens for ages more violence. treason, espionage, or revealing state secrets, many antis- In many cases, journalists are put at risk in combat tate statutes are ill-defined—or not defined at all. zones because of the apparent use of reckless or indiscrim- Bangladesh and Russia prohibit “antistate activities” and inate force by soldiers. In Iraq, U.S. forces’ fire has killed at “antistate propaganda” respectively, but offer no defini- least nine journalists, including CPJ International Press Free- tions—empowering authorities to prosecute journalists dom Award recipient Mazen Dana. A soldier said he mistook who criticize the government or officials. the camera on Dana’s shoulder for a rocket-propelled The world’s leading jailers of journalists, Cuba and grenade launcher. China, use this tactic most frequently. Thirty-three Chinese journalists were imprisoned at the end of 2004 on various “antistate” charges. In Cuba, 23 journalists were placed behind bars on similarly vague charges.

20 Spring | Summer 2005 12345678

Defamation as a Crime A Profession Divided Governments wield criminal libel statutes throughout the Journalistic factions can intensify threats of repression. In world—from Indonesia, where some of the nation’s top edi- Bangladesh, where scores of journalists have been violently tors have been targeted with criminal charges, to Panama, targeted in recent years, the media is sharply divided between where almost half the press corps has been in criminal the country’s two main political parties. Divided media some- court. At least nine journalists were imprisoned on criminal times fail to hold the respective parties accountable for defamation charges by the end of 2004, CPJ found, but the attacks—fostering a climate in which violence can continue. threat is more insidious than any statistic can demonstrate. Persistent ethnic tensions in Afghanistan have left journal- Journalists claim the mere threat of a criminal conviction is ists unable to unite behind a single professional union. Efforts enough to cause widespread self-censorship. to form a coalition broke down in 2003, leaving the three jour- Seeking the repeal of these repressive laws is funda- nalists’ unions battling each other instead of enemies of the mental to a free press. In Latin America, a long-term advo- free press. cacy campaign led to two seminal rulings in 2004 by the And in Argentina, the national press freedom group Peri- Inter-American Court of Human Rights that should make it odistas, which had united journalists and supported press harder to criminally prosecute journalists. The rulings bolster freedom for almost a decade, dissolved amid internal differ- international law, which increasingly supports civil penalties ences in 2004. Local observers say reporters in the country's as adequate redress. interior, which had been supported by these prominent jour- nalists, will suffer from the group’s disbanding. Censorship’s Subtle Hand Censorship, while still overt in a few countries, has devel- Licenses, Rules Used to Repress oped more subtle and insidious forms. Uzbekistan lifted Repressive regimes use bureaucratic statutes to deny critical official prior censorship in 2001 but shifted the burden of media outlets the right to publish or broadcast. In Zimbabwe, the “responsibility” to newspaper editors, many of whom hired country’s Media and Information Commission uses regulatory former government censors to cleanse their copy of offend- requirements to limit the operations of independent newspapers ing news. such as the Weekly Times. In late February, after only eight In Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan and Algeria, weeks of publication, the Weekly Times was shut down on a editors often receive phone calls from security services technicality—a bid by the commission to clamp down on the “advising” journalists what to print and what to avoid. In opposition press before the scheduled March elections. Uzbekistan, the state daily Pravda Vostoka (Truth of the In countries with a modicum of press freedom, officials East) fired journalist Sergei Yezhkov in January 2004 after also create bureaucratic excuses to keep critical outlets shut- he wrote several articles about corruption and social prob- tered. For the third year in a row, Armenian authorities denied lems and participated in an international conference on a broadcasting license to the independent TV channel A1+, a press freedom. consistent critic of the president. Information ministries often serve as the government’s linchpin of repression, carefully prescribing the media’s Public Information Kept Secret work and meting out harsh punishments when journalists People need access to the basic details of public life to make cross the line. The Saudi Arabian Information Ministry has thoughtful decisions about their governments. But in the post- banned columnists critical of the government from writing. 9/11 world, ready access to information is becoming more dif- Liberia’s ministry carefully censored all coverage of the ficult. Even the United States has reclassified entire swaths of recent civil war there. In Belarus, the Information Ministry information once considered public and has made other records shuttered independent newspapers whose coverage exposed arduous and time-consuming to obtain. government malfeasance. One hopeful sign came in 2003, when Mexico passed a law allowing citizens to both request information about public officials’ salaries, government contracts, internal reports, and the use of public money, and punish those officials who refuse to comply. The law is not perfect—some information can be held for up to 12 years—but it is a positive step that has allowed vital stories to come to light. I

Dangerous Assignments 21 Rebels and Reporters

For the Kremlin, the Chechen war has two flanks. v e y a l u

By Alex Lupis d a S a s u

With reporting by M / o t o h

Sophia Kishkovsky P P A

A Russian helicopter flies above the Chechen village of Benoi. Russian policies have severely restricted press coverage of the conflict, leaving the public uninformed.

long with its bloody, six-year-old conflict with his image as a strong leader while demonizing the Chechen Chechen separatists, the Kremlin has waged a bru- rebels as terrorists. “Chechnya is the president’s personal Atally effective information war using repressive project,” said Aleksei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the inde- policies, restrictive rules, subtle censorship, and outright pendent radio station Ekho Moskvy. “He chose the model of attacks on journalists, a year-long analysis by the Com- dealing with it—the ‘Chechenization’ of the conflict, pitting mittee to Protect Journalists has found. This ongoing gov- ‘good’ Chechens against ‘bad’ Chechens.” ernmental campaign, CPJ research shows, has included From the onset of the second war, the Media Ministry dozens of serious cases of harassment, threats, abduction, prohibited the major Russian television networks from air- obstruction, and assaults against journalists since the sec- ing interviews or footage of the militant leaders and blocked ond Chechen war began in August 1999. most newspaper coverage of the rebel leadership. The ban The campaign has suppressed independent reporting was the first sign that the Kremlin would not tolerate a rep- and obscured the conflict’s steadily rising death toll, which etition of the Russian media’s role in influencing public is now well into the tens of thousands. The sort of critical opinion in its battle with separatists. During the first cam- news coverage that weakened the Russian public’s support paign in 1994-96, independent broadcast media such as for the first Chechen war a decade ago—including reports NTV showed graphic images of the enormous human losses, of civilian casualties and human rights violations by Russ- while reporters risked their lives to present the Chechen ian forces—has been virtually erased from national televi- side of the story. sion and significantly curtailed in other domestic and inter- But in 1999, few Russian journalists successfully resis- national media during the current conflict. ted the Media Ministry’s interview rules or the Russian mili- “Ask the average person on the street what they know tary’s severe travel restrictions. Only approved journalists about Chechnya and they will say there are bandits there, a are permitted into the war zone—and only accompanied by water park is being built, and Ksenia Sobchak comes to visit a military escort. in a miniskirt,” said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Moscow- “During the first war, journalists basically just got their based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, describ- accreditation and had complete freedom of movement ing pervasively superficial reporting that mixes war coverage throughout Chechnya,” said Lyoma Turpalov, editor-in-chief with feel-good doses of a club-hopping socialite. of Groznensky Rabochy, which is based in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia. “Now you can only go with a military resident Vladimir Putin, the former Federal Security escort, access to interviewing civilians is totally restricted … PService (FSB) chief who took office in 1999, has been a and journalists are very vulnerable, so they are forced to beneficiary of this two-front war. The Kremlin has burnished censor themselves.” Musa Muradov, a Chechen journalist working for the Alex Lupis is senior program coordinator for the Europe & independent Moscow daily Kommersant, said many jour- Central Asia Program at the Committee to Protect Journalists. nalists are torn between their desire to report objectively He conducted two missions to Russia in 2004. on the conflict and their desire to avoid state persecution.

22 Fall | Winter 2004 “The picture of developments in Chechnya is poor because it is difficult to talk to representatives of the other side … and if you do it, it’s hard to present their point of view because you will be seen as helping terrorists,” Cold War Tactics Muradov said. “So most Russians are limited to reading and watching news that is coming from official sources.” State media often exploit Russians’ historical animosity Drugging and Detention: Beslan cases toward Chechens. “Russians think of ‘bandits,’ ‘terrorists,’ reminiscent of Soviet practices. and ‘separatists’ when they think of Chechens—and the government tries to solidify this image on RTR and NTV,” By Sophia Kishkovsky Turpalov said, referring to the state-controlled national tele- vision channels. “They always emphasize when a crime sus- With reporting by Alex Lupis pect is Chechen.” This antipathy, coupled with widespread war fatigue among Russians, has left little public thirst for inquisitive MOSCOW reporting. “The public is simply tired of this war,” said Yuri eorgian television reporter Nana Lezhava spent Bagrov, a journalist based in North Ossetia who has report- three brutal days covering the horrors of the ed for The Associated Press and Radio Free Europe/Radio GBeslan school siege, interviewing grief-stricken Liberty (RFE/RL). Only when violence spills into another families and trying to find some truth amid the dizzying republic, he said, is pubic apathy shaken. array of official deception. Yet her own ordeal was just about to begin. ress officers at the Kremlin and the FSB did not respond On September 4, the Federal Security Service (FSB), Pto written questions submitted by CPJ seeking comment the successor agency to the KGB, detained Lezhava and on their media policies. Publicly, the Kremlin justifies travel cameraman Levan Tetvadze on a specious border viola- restrictions by pointing to the reporters who were kidnapped tion for five days. Lezhava by criminal groups during Chechnya’s period of de facto was interrogated, tried, independence from 1996 to 1999. Yet Russian forces have subjected to an involun- themselves targeted journalists during this second war. tary gynecological exam, Andrei Babitsky, a Russian covering Chechnya for and slipped a dose of a RFE/RL, found himself in the Kremlin’s crosshairs after dis- psychotropic drug. obeying travel restrictions. Babitsky disappeared in mid- “They asked me if I January 2000 while on assignment in the Chechen capital, taste cognac in the cof- Grozny. After two weeks of Kremlin denials—and growing fee,” she said in a recent international pressure—officials in Moscow admitted that interview, matter-of-factly 2

Russian forces were holding the reporter in a nearby deten- i recounting details that v a t tion camp. Several more weeks of confusion and contra- s seemed drawn from a u R dictory reports followed, during which Russian soldiers Cold War-era spy novel. Nana Lezhava returns to handed Babitsky over to a group of Chechen rebels, then Georgia after five days of “They said they gave some planted false identity papers on him and arrested him. detention in Russia, during to me because I was so When Babitsky was finally released at the end of February which she was interrogated cold. I don’t remember and drugged. 2000, the Kremlin called him a traitor for reporting on mil- anything after that. When itary operations. I came to, it was 24 hours later and I was in an FSB In a more mysterious case in July 2003, unidentified detention cell.” gunmen seized Agence France-Presse correspondent Ali The government’s use of spetsoperatsii—covert, KGB- Astamirov just outside Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia. style special operations—to silence independent jour- Before he disappeared, Astamirov had endured months of nalists has become a disturbing development in today’s police and FSB harassment. No ransom was ever requested, Russia, especially when it comes to the conflict in and local journalists and human rights activists told CPJ Chechnya. Nowhere was the practice more evident than they suspected that security forces loyal to the Kremlin were responsible. The government has dismissed such Sophia Kishkovsky has lived and worked in Russia speculation, but has reported no progress in solving the since 1991. She has written for The New York Times, The disappearance. Wall Street Journal Europe, and other publications on poli- “During the second war, bureaucrats and the security serv- tics, culture, religion, and freedom of the press in post- ices became much more interested in journalists like Babitsky Soviet Russia.

Dangerous Assignments 23 in the North Ossetian town of Beslan; more than a dozen “He told me, ‘You are a very active lady,’” she journalists reported being obstructed or detained while recalled, an observation that still surprises her. “I can’t trying to cover the deadly hostage crisis there. imagine a journalist who is not active. What kind of Among journalists, poisonings and bogus detentions journalist are you if you are not active and interested in bring to mind Soviet-era cases such as the notorious what is happening?” 1978 murder of exiled Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov, The ministry representative summoned the FSB. who was felled in London by a hit man firing a poison Lezhava and Tetvadze were detained—first in Beslan pellet from an umbrella. Investigators said the KGB and then in Vladikavkaz—and their camera, phones, cas- helped Bulgarian agents carry out the assassination. settes, microphone, and other equipment were seized. Eight years later, Soviet agents planted secret docu- They were accused of illegally crossing the border. While ments on Nicholas Daniloff, Moscow correspondent for Georgians and Russians need visas to visit each other, U.S. News & World Report, and then detained him for two Lezhava and Tetvadze are registered in Kazbegi, a Geor- weeks while they bargained for the release of a Soviet gian border district whose residents carry passport agent being held in New York. inserts known as vkladyshi that give them the right to The FSB and the Kremlin did not respond to written spend 10 days in Russia without a visa. questions submitted by the Committee to Protect Jour- But in the custody of the FSB, Lezhava said, “The nalists about Lezhava or other Beslan cases. inserts simply disappeared. They took them and stole them.” So the two were tried on the border violation and eporting for Rustavi-2, Lezhava and Tetvadze crossed Lezhava’s medical exam was administered, she said, on Rthe border on September 1 without difficulty and the pretense that it was required before entering an FSB soon went on the air with a live feed, saying that the num- prison. Lezhava remembers little after being drugged, ber of hostages was around 1,400—a figure far higher and which apparently happened when seemingly solicitous more accurate than the official estimate of 354. security agents served her coffee and sandwiches. By September 4, after the crisis had exploded in vio- By September 8, amid a growing international out- lence that left hundreds dead, Lezhava and other jour- cry, an FSB general came from Moscow. Apologies were nalists were interviewing hysterical relatives who were made, a television camera brought in, and the two were desperate to cut through the bureaucratic chaos and instructed to say that they hadn’t been tortured or hurt. learn whether their missing children were dead or alive. Lezhava and Tetvadze were allowed to pay a fine and An observer who identified himself as an employee of taken to the border where Georgian officials met them. the Russian Foreign Ministry, which accredits journalists Lezhava was examined by doctors upon her return to for work in Russia and keeps track of their coverage, sin- Tbilisi. Gela Lezhava, chairman of the supervisory board gled out Lezhava. of the Narcology Research Institute, said traces of a drug

Mourners weep over the coffins v

of hostages e r a t

killed in the e r k

Beslan school e S n

siege. a v I / P A

24 Spring | Summer 2005 from the benzodiazepine group were found in her sys- and Astamirov,” Bagrov said. “What happened to them was a tem, the Kavkasia-Press news agency reported. Georgia’s lesson to others that it’s not worth it to do your job.” Health and Social Security Minister Lado Chipashvili also A Moscow-based Western correspondent, who said he said traces of a psychotropic substance were present. travels covertly to Chechnya to report on the war, called Lezhava was hospitalized for five days and suffered security conditions appalling for everyone. “It’s completely from frequent headaches. When she recounted the lawless. People are still disappearing at night at the hands events in a telephone interview six months later, she was of armed men,” said the journalist, who spoke on the con- working again and had just returned from an assign- dition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. ment in the Pankissi Gorge enclave between Chechnya Local journalists living in and around Chechnya also and Georgia, where she reported on Chechen refugees’ face intense bureaucratic harassment and obstruction. “It’s reactions to the killing of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov a problem getting the most basic information from gov- by Russian security forces. ernment officials,” said Timur Aliyev, editor-in-chief of Chechenskoye Obshchestvo, which is based in Ingushetia for PJ and others have documented additional cases of security reasons. But access to information is just one prob- Cobstruction and retaliation involving Beslan. Amr lem for the independent weekly; local officials angered by Abdul Hamid, Moscow bureau chief of the Dubai-based its reporting on abuses by Russian forces have waged an satellite television channel Al-Arabiya, was detained ongoing campaign of bureaucratic pressure and censorship while returning from Beslan; Raf Shakirov, editor-in- against the newspaper. chief of the leading daily Izvestia, was forced out after Authorities in Ingushetia, complying with a request his paper’s critical coverage of the siege. But the cases of from Chechnya’s Interior Ministry, shut Chechenskoye two prominent war correspondents, Andrei Babitsky and Obshchestvo for the month prior to Chechnya’s August 2004 Anna Politkovskaya, have drawn particular attention. presidential elections. The government newspaper distrib- Babitsky, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty jour- utor cancelled the newspaper’s contract, making for “a very nalist famous for his coverage of Chechnya, was pulled complicated situation,” Aliyev said. off a September 2 flight that was to have taken him from Journalists from other parts of Russia also face great the Vnukovo Airport to Mineralniye Vody. He then scrutiny. In January, the FSB launched a criminal investiga- planned to travel on to Beslan. tion of Pravo-Zashchita, an independent newspaper based But Babitsky was told traces of explosives were in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod, after it pub- found on his checked luggage. By the time the luggage lished remarks by rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and his was reinspected and cleared, the flight had left and two envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, that called for a peaceful resolu- young strangers had come upon the scene. The men tion to the conflict. Federal authorities issued an official demanded Babitsky buy them beer and followed him warning to Kommersant for publishing an interview with when he refused. When voices were raised, the airport Maskhadov in February. The next month, Russian forces police descended and detained Babitsky on a charge of killed Maskhadov. “hooliganism.” While all three were in custody, Babitsky recalled in he tactics in Chechnya reflect the Kremlin’s overall an interview, the men acknowledged that they worked Tmedia strategy, which employs nearly a dozen govern- for the airport’s parking-lot security and had been ment agencies at local, national, and international levels to instructed by a security chief to provoke a fight. Babitsky, stifle criticism. Television is a focal point. who eventually paid a fine of about $34, never made it “When Putin came to power he knew exactly what he to Beslan. He describes the whole episode as “very Soviet wanted to do, and that was to control national television,” in character.” said Masha Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Cen- The case of Anna Politkovskaya is more mysterious. ter. National television is far and away the dominant source The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reporter, whose searing of news for Russians. Lipman said that projecting an image stories about Chechnya have won her international of strength and stability on TV screens nationwide is central acclaim, was also on her way to Beslan on September 2. to Putin’s political strategy—to the point of becoming an After drinking tea on a flight to Rostov-on-Don, end in itself. Politkovskaya became violently ill and lost conscious- A series of political appointments to the country’s ness. She, too, never made it to the school siege, although influential state broadcasters, Channel One (ORT) and RTR, the cause of her illness has not been determined. have ensured pro-Putin editorial policies. Independent sta- Politkovskaya has declined to talk about her case, but tions have been shuttered by the government or swal- Novaya Gazeta Editor Dmitry Muratov said he is convinced lowed up by pro-government businesses. The state gas she was poisoned to prevent her from getting to Beslan. “All monopoly Gazprom carried out a hostile takeover of these cases,” Muratov said ruefully, “are very strange.” I national television channel NTV in 2001. A court order

Dangerous Assignments 25 hese restrictive policies have led to widespread public Tignorance about the crime, government corruption, military incompetence, and human rights abuses that plague government efforts in Chechnya. The September 2004 hostage-taking in Beslan surprised many Russians, who had been told by the country’s three state-controlled national television channels that life in the republic was returning to normal. “The media are an important political instrument for the government …but trust in the media is falling and I don’t think the Kremlin is paying attention to this at all,” said Olga Karabanova, director of the Moscow-based Press Develop- ment Institute. Shylov offered a similar view. “People no longer see tele- vision as a source of information,” he said. “People who read newspapers and the Internet know that on television you get the official line.” Putin’s tactics raise broader questions about his willing- ness to tackle sensitive issues such as government corrup- r

u tion, human rights abuses, organized crime, AIDS, and the m r a trafficking of drugs, weapons, and humans. “The lack of M m i accountability is a big problem,” Lipman said. “In the short x a M

/ run, Putin has politics, but not the country, under his control.” P A For his part, Babitsky said that “these are not Soviet Radio journalist Andrei Babitsky speaks to the media after times” and that the press still has some latitude for criticism being questioned by Russian investigators in 2000. Babitsky was detained by Russian forces and called a traitor while of the government. But he added, “We don’t know how far reporting in Chechnya. Putin is ready to go, and the distance he’s gone is significant.” The damage now is not measured by “closed newspapers or closed TV-6 in 2002, and the Media Ministry pulled TVS off closed political parties,” Babitsky said, but by the number of the air in 2003. dead in Chechnya—the terrible cost of a story that goes “It’s because of television’s big role in ensuring (former untold in Russia. I President) Boris Yeltsin’s re-election in 1996 that the Krem- lin is so concerned about what is on the television screens,” said Andrei Shylov, a reporter on NTV’s popular Sunday Chechnya by the Numbers news program “Namedni” until it was yanked off the air in 2004 in response to Kremlin pressure. In quick succession Since the second Chechen war began in 1999, CPJ has that year, the Kremlin purged national television of virtual- documented dozens of cases of press abuse. Many more ly every substantive current affairs show and independent- abuses go unreported, often because journalists are minded news host. fearful that publicity will draw unwanted government The Kremlin has long tried to shape international news attention. Here is a numerical snapshot of the worst coverage by denying visas and accreditation to foreign cor- cases involving journalists, as documented by CPJ staff. respondents, but in recent months it has stepped up pres- sure on foreign governments as well. Russian diplomats Deaths: 7 have pressed several Baltic and Central European countries Includes deaths in crossfire and two targeted killings to shut down the pro-Chechen news Web site KavkazCenter; blamed on rebels which the Kremlin calls a “terrorist” site even though both Censorship, legal actions: 20 Western and Russian journalists rely on it as one of the few Direct government actions designed to suppress reporting sources of breaking news from the region. Harassment: 33 In February, Russian diplomats unsuccessfully urged Other government actions intended to hinder reporting British authorities to censor an interview with rebel leader Abductions: 5 Shamil Basayev on the independent television station Chan- Kidnappings by armed groups nel 4. The next month, they criticized the Swedish govern- Imprisonments: 8 ment for allowing the independent news agency TT to pub- Detentions by Russian forces or government officials lish an interview with Basayev.

26 Spring | Summer 2005 ON THE WEB

Out of the Silence

When Nepal’s King Gyanendra switched off the news, reporters switched tactics.

By Kristin Jones

t 10:25 a.m. on February 1, Now came the hard part—distribu- King Gyanendra of Nepal deliv- tion. Without telephone, fax, e-mail, or A ered a stunning proclama- Internet, the statement was delivered tion—Nepal's multi-party government to international nongovernmental had been dismissed and a state of organizations, diplomatic offices, media s t emergency declared. Simultaneously, s houses, and foreign journalists by i l a n telephone lines across the country r bicycle and motorcycle couriers. With- u o J were cut, mobile phone service dis- e in hours, it had been photocopied s e l a continued, and fax and Internet con- p countless times. Soon, it was translated e N

f into English, and, via satellite connec- nections shut down. Backed by the o n o i

Royal Nepalese Army, the king seized t tions accessible to diplomats and for- a r e state television and radio, placed the d eign journalists, an electronic version e F country’s political leaders under house appeared in in-boxes across the world. Bishnu Nisthuri, general secretary of arrest, and silenced the press with mil- the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Dahal went into hiding. When itary occupations of major media publicized government harassment of security forces surrounded his house houses and wide bans on reporting. his colleague’s family—and was arrested and harassed his family, Nisthuri for his efforts. In the silence that followed, a sur- wrote and distributed a statement prising thing happened. the streets deserted. When he arrived calling attention to the treatment of The king was unable to shut off at the umbrella organization’s build- the FNJ president. On February 4, it Nepal from the rest of the world. ing, “no journalists had come to the was Nisthuri who was arrested. Rather, in the days after the coup, office for fear of arrest,” he said in a smuggled e-mails, clandestine Web CPJ interview. Resolved to take a n those initial days, the coup sites, and the unlikely emergence of a stand against the king’s curtailment of Iseemed to generate little national handful of Nepalese bloggers threw the Nepal’s hard-won press freedom, protest. Racked by a civil conflict government and independent journal- Dahal met with FNJ General Secretary between Maoist rebels and the gov- ists into a cat-and-mouse chase. The Bishnu Nisthuri and decided to risk ernment, Nepal had been run down by king’s unintentional result: While arrest by writing a statement that violence. Faith in political parties had attempting to plunge Nepal into a com- would condemn the king’s actions and been compromised by corruption. munications dark age, he spawned a boost the morale of his colleagues. Some Nepalese believed that the small legion of online journalists. “The royal announcement made king’s drastic actions were in order; yesterday, by ending the spirit and many feared that dissent would mean hortly after the announcement, value of the constitution of Nepal, is a arrest. And in a poor country where STara Nath Dahal, president of the coup against democracy and peoples’ only about 80,000 of 27 million citi- Federation of Nepalese Journalists rights,” the explosive first sentence zens are regular Internet users, where (FNJ) emerged from his home to find read. The following morning, Dahal illiteracy is high and phone lines don’t met with other central committee reach large swaths of the mountains, a Kristin Jones is research associate for members of the FNJ and secretly communications blackout isn’t a life- CPJ’s Asia program. printed out the statement. changing event for many people.

Dangerous Assignments 27 Dinesh Wagle, an arts reporter for Nepal’s major daily Kantipur and a The day after King Gyanendra cut off communication between pioneering Nepalese blogger, was Nepal and the rest of the world, entirely absent from the blogosphere Nepalese soldiers guard the during the first week of the coup. The streets of Kathmandu. Internet remained down until Febru- ary 8, and he lacked access to expen- sive satellite connections. Regardless, his United We Blog! (UWB, www.blog. com.np), had rarely dealt with politics. The site was primarily an English- language diary with threads on music, parties, and the media. But when Internet communication l e i z resumed, Kantipur and all other media l a D h

outlets were still barred from any t e b a

reporting “that goes against the letter z i l E /

and the spirit of the royal proclama- P A tion.” So, while the king’s army disman- tled community radio and choked dis- been targeted. Editor Girish Pokhrel and most people do not speak Eng- sent in the country’s Nepali-language said that the government blocked the lish, the government may not have publications, the Web site posted its Web site in Nepal shortly after the viewed most online journalism as a new motto: “United We Blog! wants resumption of Internet service. threat. Internet journalists, in general, Peace and Democracy [to] be restored were not in a position to report on the in Nepal as soon as possible.” espite its resolve, the Nepalese political conflict that raged in the Wagle’s colleagues began to see Dgovernment may not have the country’s rural areas. On the other the blog in a new light, he said. “Even resources for sophisticated Internet hand, the king’s post-coup directives those folks at Kantipur who didn’t surveillance and blocking. Pokhrel struck at the heart of community radio, read my blogs or simply ignored them found that readers in Nepal soon a primary source of information for are now following daily,” he wrote in accessed the site through overseas the many Nepalese who are illiterate. an e-mail to CPJ. “Political reporters proxy servers, which retrieve Web site Independent newscasts were banned, also share info with me that they can’t contents on the user’s behalf. When and reports on the Maoist insurgency write in Kantipur.” The site provided those proxy servers were blocked, were restricted. extensive, street-level coverage of readers found new ones. As Nepalese began to report elec- political protests and reports on the Newslook, a U.S.-based English-lan- tronically to the world, however, the arrests of colleagues. Interest soared, guage Web site that culls international world responded. The international both inside and outside of Nepal. headlines, saw its readership in Nepal outcry over the imprisonment of The king restored communications multiply by five during the month of Nisthuri helped to win his release on with a caveat: security forces could February. Editor Dharma Adhikari, a February 25. Though under pressure monitor and block media outlets as Nepal-born journalism professor at from the government, Dahal evaded they saw fit. Were online journalists Georgia Southern University, told CPJ arrest and teamed with other advocates putting themselves at risk? Wagle that the number of hits from Nepal to launch the Web site Press Freedom admitted that there were submissions dropped by only 10 percent when the Nepal (www.pressfreedomnepal.org), he would not post—for example, state- government blocked the site around which posts press freedom violations ments calling for an end to the monar- February 23. Somehow users were find- and relevant news. The fight for the chy. Radio Free Nepal, another blog ing a way to get through. Internet is not over, but Newslook edi- that emerged after the coup, posted For the most part, Nepalese tor Adhikari pointed out the greatest comments anonymously in order to authorities showed greater tolerance hope for budding online journalists. protect contributors. for critical commentary in online “Censoring the ’Net is not that easy,” By April, these two blogs had news sources than in print publica- he observed. Even for an absolute escaped direct government censorship, tions, and allowed more freedom in monarch. I but other news Web sites such as the English-language media than in Nepali- Nepali Post, a Washington, D.C.-based language media. In a country where For updates on the press freedom crisis Nepali-language online magazine, had the Internet is prohibitively expensive in Nepal, visit www.cpj.org.

28 Spring | Summer 2005 DISPATCHES

The Thin Red Line

Syrian journalists push boundaries, but uncertainty, fear remain.

By Rhonda Roumani

DAMASCUS, Syria often collides with the reality of the remained relatively silent on the issue or more than four decades, the country’s authoritarian regime. Five of Lebanon. Journalists complained powerful and ever-looming secu- years ago, President Bashar al-Assad that the government was clamping Frity apparatus known as seemed to usher in freer expression down on the flow of information. Syrian mukhabarat was a bright, unwavering during the “Damascus Spring”—only to newscasts didn’t air Lebanese opposi- red line. Any Syrian journalist who clamp down a year later with restric- tion protests, and Syrian newspapers dared criticize the secret police did tive media laws and a series of arrests. failed to print a single article critical so in the Lebanese or international Now, as Syria struggles with its of the country’s statements and poli- press—or not at all. So when journalist loss of influence in Lebanon, the Syrian cies. Criticism of Syria’s presence in Hakam al-Baba criticized mukhabarat press appears constrained by that his- Lebanon was confined to Gulf and last fall for invasion of privacy and tory of repression. So while some Syrian Lebanese newspapers. other offenses—in the government-run journalists are challenging the prohi- “The Syrian media did not know daily Tishreen, no less—his story drew bitions known as red lines, many are what to do with Hariri’s death,” said al- plenty of attention. fearful about pushing too far. Baba, seated this day at a smoke-filled Some journalists cited the story as coffee shop in Cham Palace, a popular evidence that a small measure of free fter the assassination of former hangout for Syrian intellectuals, jour- speech had become acceptable in Syria ALebanese Prime Minister Rafik nalists and, of course, mukhabarat. in the last two years. “The concept of Hariri in mid-February, the Syrian press “They did not show what was happen- the forbidden is now debatable and that is a huge step,” said Ziad Haidar, correspondent for As-Safir newspaper in Damascus. The appointment of Mehdi Dakhlallah, former editor of the Baath Party newspaper Al-Baath, as informa- tion minister in September 2004 also gave journalists hopes of real media reform. Dakhlallah, the first minister in 20 years to have worked as a jour- nalist, has written openly about the need for democratic change. Yet recent Syrian history also sug- gests that the promise of a freer press

Rhonda Roumani is a freelance jour- P nalist based in Damascus and a former A journalist with the Beirut-based Daily Lebanese protesters in Beirut wave anti-Syrian banners during a March broadcast of a speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian journalists are challenging Star. government restrictions but still shy from covering sensitive events such as this.

Dangerous Assignments 29 ing in Lebanon. When they reported security hotel.” Red-haired and gruff, who was imprisoned for six months in that [Lebanese Prime Minister] Omar al-Baba said Tishreen agreed to publish 2003 after he published an article in Karami’s government resigned, they the article only if he would remove a Al-Hayat that described the Syrian made no mention of the opposition.” segment in which he likened Fayyad to government’s plan to accept Iraqi Intense international pressure has a prisoner who learned to thank his refugees during the onset of the U.S. heightened Syrian nationalism and guards for his salvation. invasion of Iraq. “When the red lines made journalists’ jobs more difficult. “I agreed to publish in Tishreen are not clear, it is dangerous.” Instead of building on the momentum because it is important to talk about In the last two years, more than to critique government actions, the this subject in the Syrian media, 100 new private publications—most media has reverted to a defensive style, which has not addressed the topic in of them social, cultural, and trade mag- according to analysts and journalists. 42 years,” al-Baba said. He published azines—have been granted licenses. “Syria has felt itself under a lot of the article in its entirety in the Only one is a political publication, Black pressure. So it felt like it needed to Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar—and and White, owned by Bilal Tourekmani, return to an old way of doing journal- said that Tishreen has since refused to son of Syria’s defense minister. Black ism,” said Salam Kawakibi, a media ana- publish any of his work. and White has tackled sensitive sub- lyst for the French Institute for the Mid- jects such as Syria’s emergency law, but dle East and great-grandson of Abdul- ast promises of greater openness observers say Tourekmani is able to do Rahman Kawakibi, a Syrian intellectual Pin Syria have gone unfulfilled. so only because of an unofficial immu- who promoted democratic change. Despite al-Assad’s pledges of reform, nity granted to people of his status. Salim Brahim, a reporter for The “Damascus Spring” came to an abrupt Associated Press, put the blame on end in 2001, when 10 activists and akhlallah said a committee is now the “mentality of fear until now. … members of Parliament were jailed Din the process of reviewing and The mindset is not ready to take all of and Decree 50 established Syria’s new amending Syria’s print law, but he is this openness, especially the mindset print law. Although this new law uncertain when its work will be com- of government employees and gov- allowed for the creation of private pleted. And changing the law, he said, ernment journalists.” publications, many saw it as a step is just one step in promoting greater backward from its 1949 predecessor. openness. ronically, al-Baba’s story was prompt- The 2001 law prohibits publica- “Compared to what used to be Ied by an article in the Lebanese paper tions from running any news that broadcast in the Syrian media, we Al Nahar that offered surprisingly posi- “hurts the national security and social have made some progress,” said tive comments about Syrian security unity” and the “dignity of the state.” For Dakhlallah, noting that the Syrian forces. The author, Syrian journalist printing “false information,” a journalist media has published articles criticiz- ing the regime and included opposi- tion figures in some television news As Syria struggles with its loss of influence in programs. “Am I satisfied with what has been achieved until now? The Lebanon, the Syrian press appears constrained by answer is: No, I am not.” a history of repression. Hamidi, like other Syrian journal- ists, said that continuing uncertainty over what is allowed—and what is not— Nabil Fayyad, recounted the month he’d can face a three-year prison term—up breeds self-censorship. At a recent just spent in prison, where he’d been from the one-year term in the previ- demonstration organized by opposi- held under suspicion of being a ous law. Coverage of the army and tion figures to protest the emergency founder of a group called the Liberal the ministry of defense is off-limits. law, few Syrian journalists could be Discourse Club. In his article, Fayyad The prime minister approves all new found in the crowd. Hamidi said he praised the security forces for the publications and can suspend a publi- refused to cover the protest because of “moral and civilized treatment” he cation without reason. The informa- his fear that he would be accused of try- received while jailed. tion minister can ban any publication ing to harm the government. Al-Baba mocked the communiqué that “harms the national sovereignty “Yes, maybe now the ceiling is in his published retort, noting that or disturbs the peace and contradicts higher, maybe the red lines are less Fayyad failed to mention that the secu- public morals.” and the margin is wider,” Hamidi said. rity services had invaded his privacy “You are always afraid that any “But the regime succeeded in putting by searching his house and workplace article you write might be some sort the red lines in our minds and that before taking him to his “five-star of violation,” said Ibrahim Hamidi, takes a long time to change.” I

30 Spring | Summer 2005 CORRESPONDENTS

The Rise of Rights?

In China, weiquan advocates find success is tempered by harsh reality.

By Sophie Beach s r e t u e R

Cheng Yizhong, the editor of Nanfang Dushi Bao, was arrested in March 2004 after exposing the fatal beating of a man in detention.

un Zhigang, a young graphic market forces regularly collide with who now runs the New Century Net designer from Hubei Province, authoritarian traditions—it also landed Web site, which has covered many Swas arrested on the streets of Cheng and three colleagues in prison. recent weiquan cases. “Journalists and Guangzhou in March 2003 for not car- The ensuing court battle became a lawyers from all over the country took rying a required registration permit. prominent example of an emerging on the Nanfang Dushi Bao case as an Police brought him to a “custody and movement in China known as weiquan example of weiquan and that had a big repatriation” center, one of the hun- in which lawyers and legal scholars are influence on the outcome.” dreds of detention facilities run by local more assertively defending the consti- governments to control migrant popu- tutional rights of individuals, includ- mmediately after Nanfang Dushi lations. Three days later, Sun was dead. ing journalists, in court. The defense IBao broke the Sun story on April 25, Reporters from Nanfang Dushi Bao in the Nanfang Dushi Bao case ulti- 2003, newspapers and Web sites (Southern Metropolis News), an aggres- mately won the release of Cheng and throughout China republished the sive daily run by groundbreaking edi- tor Cheng Yizhong, soon discovered an official autopsy report that found The arrests of the top managers at one of the Sun had been beaten to death in cus- tody. Though well aware that a story country’s most popular newspapers sent shock on the autopsy would infuriate local waves through the journalism community. officials, Cheng gave the go-ahead to publish it anyway. The article touched off a national scandal that led to another defendant and secured short- account, chat rooms and bulletin important government reforms. But er prison terms for others. But wei- boards exploded with outrage, and true to the nature of contemporary quan’s gains are modest thus far—and legal experts intensified calls for the Chinese society—where emerging free- the government has shown only the abolition of the abuse-ridden “custody most limited tolerance for its goals. and repatriation” centers. In June 2003, Sophie Beach is editor of China Digital “The emergence and development the central government announced Times Web log and a former senior of the weiquan movement reflects the that all of the more than 800 centers research associate for CPJ’s Asia pro- awakening and ongoing maturation of would be closed. Six police officers gram. She led a CPJ mission to Guang- Chinese civil society,” says Zhang and officials were jailed for their role dong in 2004. Weiguo, a former journalist in China in Sun’s death.

Dangerous Assignments 31 The positive outcome was a rare partner to their staid mainstay, Nafang vision, the central government’s own example of the Chinese media and Ribao (Southern Daily), the paper had a broadcasting arm, several Chinese public opinion exerting powerful circulation of 1.4 million and $20 mil- journalists told CPJ. Many journalists influence over society. But local gov- lion in profits in 2003. Cheng was knew the arrests were likely local offi- ernments, which control all local widely respected in the journalism com- cials’ retaliation for the paper’s cover- media, including Nanfang Dushi Bao, munity for his pioneering approach, age of Sun’s case—along with its wield considerable power in China. which featured tabloid-style reports on reporting on the resurgence of SARS Within a year, Cheng and three other sports and entertainment combined in the province and other sensitive top officials from the paper were with muckraking investigations into political topics. behind bars. local officialdom. In late 2003, local authorities in Moreover, the evidence of corrup- n response, journalists launched an Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, tion presented in the case was uncon- Iunprecedented campaign to win the China’s richest province, began inves- vincing to many observers. The activ- release of their colleagues. They tigating the finances of the newspa- ities that had put Yu, Li, Deng, and signed petitions on the Internet, wrote per. Journalists’ salaries in China are Cheng under suspicion were common letters to the management of the notoriously low, and like many media practice in newsrooms around the Southern Daily Group, and protested organizations in China today, the country, including China Central Tele- to local authorities. paper had a practice of rewarding good journalists with generous bonuses. In December 2003, general manager Yu Huafeng was arrested on suspicion of corruption for transfer- ring 580,000 renminbi (US $70,000) from the advertising department to members of the editorial committee. On March 19, 2004, Yu was con- victed of corruption and embezzling public funds and sentenced to 12 years in jail. Li Minying, an official with the Southern Daily Group, the paper’s parent company, was sen- tenced to 11 years for allegedly accepting a bribe from Yu. The same day, Cheng was arrested while on a trip to Sichuan Province. Police searched his house and confiscated a number of political books and maga- zines. Vice Editor Deng Haiyan was also arrested. The arrests of the top manage- ment at one of the country’s most popular and profitable newspapers sent shock waves through the journal- ism community in China. A former editor at another popular Guangzhou- based newspaper, who spoke on con- dition of anonymity due to his fears of reprisal, called the arrests “the most serious blow to the Chinese media in the last decade.”

For many, Nanfang Dushi Bao rep- s r e t u

resented the new face of the media in e R China. Launched by the Southern Daily Sun Zhigang’s family grieves as his killers are sentenced. Cheng Yizhong’s newspaper Group as a profit-generating tabloid uncovered the truth about Sun’s death.

32 Spring | Summer 2005 Lawyer Xu Zhiyong, an advocate reform, anticorruption efforts, and lowing an appeal on June 7, 2004, the for legal reforms who has taken on a the movement against “custody and sentences of Li and Yu were reduced number of politically sensitive cases, repatriation” centers. to six and eight years, respectively. agreed to defend the Nanfang Dushi “In human rights cases that are not The day of the appeal trial, authorities Bao journalists. Xu had been among a too sensitive, public scrutiny falls closed the Open Constitutional Web group of lawyers who successfully within the gray areas of what is legal,” site, providing no reason. petitioned the government for the the Beijing-based writer Liu Xiaobo Liu Two months later, both Cheng and abolition of the “custody and repatri- said in a recent essay. “The people’s Deng were released from prison with- ation” centers following Sun’s death. wisdom is good at using this ambigu- out charge. Cheng was expelled from Xu became one of the strongest ity to create a space to advance their the Communist Party and was public advocates for the journalists, own interests.” assigned an administrative post at the helping establish a Web site, the Open Nevertheless, the lines demarcat- Southern Daily Group. Constitutional Initiative, which posted ing politically acceptable speech in Many in China credit the unprece- important documents about the case China are often blurry, and the gov- dented public support that the jour- along with articles by legal scholars ernment has begun to rein in some of nalists received for Cheng and Deng’s calling for their release. He held a these public activities. On November release and the reduction in Li and public conference in Beijing to dis- 25, 2004, People’s Daily, the official Yu’s sentences. Yet Yu and Li remain cuss the case and explain the defense mouthpiece of the Communist Party, in prison, and their families are los- arguments. published an attack on so-called pub- ing hope that their sentences might Like-minded lawyers pointed to lic intellectuals, or scholars, including be overturned on appeal. Cheng is the case as an example of China’s fail- journalists and lawyers, who take on a free, but his journalism career is ure to reform into a country ruled by public role in civic life. effectively over. law. Specifically, they cited a consti- “All this talk about the intellectu- Yu’s wife, Xiang Li, said the tutional amendment adopted by the als speaking up for the downtrodden lawyers and legal scholars who peti- National People’s Congress in 2004 is ridiculous and smacks of the ‘hero’ tioned local officials for her husband’s that protects private property. They or ‘elite’ view of history,” wrote the release have received no reply from argued that since the money that Yu had disbursed was taken from the paper’s advertising revenue, it could In the weiquan movement, each modest success not be counted as “public funds” even though Southern Daily Group, the is tempered by harsh reality—and the Nanfang parent company, was a state-owned Dushi Bao case illustrates the point well. corporation. In a document sent to local officials in Guangdong, several well-known legal scholars said the author, Ji Fangping. “The main charac- authorities. “But, from another per- charges against the journalists “don’t ters in history are not the intellectuals spective, couldn’t the release of go with the facts, don’t fit the law, but the broad masses of the people.” Cheng Yizhong and Deng Haiyan be and are not valid.” And, as CPJ reported in March considered a direct response?” she While such outspokenness is often 2005, Shanghai authorities suspended asked, seeming to take some consola- dangerous in China, where the gov- the law license of Guo Guoting, a tion in that result. ernment views any political dissent lawyer who has defended several Xiang vows to press on. She says as a hostile act, these lawyers were imprisoned journalists, dissidents, she will continue to appeal Yu’s sen- partially empowered by the growing and Falun Gong supporters. The sus- tence “until the court declares Yu weiquan—“defend rights”—movement. pension notice cited articles Guo had Huafeng innocent, until they return The concept of weiquan has helped posted online that criticized the Com- justice to us, and to the law.” Yet she, define a growing consciousness of munist Party, but Guo told CPJ he the journalists, their lawyers, and oth- constitutional rights among scholars, believed that the suspension was due ers fighting for the right to free expres- lawyers, dissidents, and others. Their to his legal defense of cases involving sion in China clearly have a long and demands for the rule of law, most free expression. arduous road ahead. “In China, super- often expressed in online forums, vision by the media can only proceed have largely escaped official censure n the weiquan movement, each within the existing system,” Cheng because they often address issues Imodest success is tempered by said in an interview published before falling within the government’s own harsh reality—and the Nanfang Dushi his arrest. “Freedom means knowing evolving policies—such as legal Bao case illustrates the point well. Fol- how big your cage is.” I

Dangerous Assignments 33 UPDATE

The case against Wapile depends in part on the testimony of Amoro and Ongue, who were riding in the jeep with Damalerio when a gunman fired at them from a motorcycle. Amoro A Deadly Trial signed a sworn affidavit that can be entered as evidence. The third wit- ness, Lovitaño, did not give sworn tes- As justice drags in a Philippine journalist’s murder, timony and his signed police state- ment will be of less help to prosecu- three families fear for their safety. tors. Before he was killed, Lovitaño told the National Bureau of Investiga- By Dean M. Bernardo tion that a local police officer had approached him looking to take out a contract on Damalerio’s life. Damale- rio was known for taking on police MANILA, Philippines lost this case—or we would all be dead and government corruption in his hree years after commentator by now,” Damalerio’s wife, Gemma, radio and television broadcasts. Edgar Damalerio was killed in a said in a telephone interview arranged Defense lawyers did not respond Tdrive-by shooting on a crowded by the Department of Justice. She and to messages seeking comment for this street in Pagadian City, about 500 miles her youngest daughter are in the fed- story. Wapile and Hawani have pub- south of here, at least one suspect, a eral protection program through the licly denied involvement. Concerned former police officer, is finally headed end of the trial. One witness, Juvy that a fair trial was impossible in Paga- for trial. But the families of Damalerio Lovitaño, was killed three years ago. dian City, the Damalerio family and and the witnesses in the case are endur- Another, schoolteacher Edgar Amoro, press advocates urged that the case ing a trial of their own—a deadly one. was shot down in February. A third be moved. Supreme Court Chief Jus- Two witnesses to the May 2002 witness, Edgar Ongue, survived an tice Hilarion Davide agreed to transfer slaying have already been killed, and attempt on his life last year, when an the case to Cebu City, about 350 miles at least five members of three families assailant’s gun malfunctioned. Their south of Manila. Wapile faces a possi- are now in a witness protection pro- families have been threatened, too. ble death penalty if convicted. The gram. Still other family members are “The day my husband died, I trial is expected to begin soon, but no in hiding, their lives regularly threat- received a text message saying they date has been set. ened as the trial of ex-Pagadian City vowed to eliminate the rest of the mem- “I’m hoping that the monitoring and cop Guillermo Wapile approaches. bers of my family,” Erlinda Amoro said. support on this case continues until we The Damalerio murder, committed She said she had to quit her job, move, get justice,” Gemma Damalerio said. But in sight of a police station, cast a and scatter her family to evade the appeals could extend for years, and the harsh light on the culture of lawless- killers. For now, she and one child are in families expect to lose federal protec- ness in Pagadian City, a trading port of the protection program. So is Ongue. tion once the initial trial concludes. 150,000 on the island of Mindanao. The case has been tainted by alle- Gonzales said he assured the families Another journalist, radio commentator gations of police obstruction. This year, of support, but he acknowledged “the Olimpio Jalapit, was killed in Pagadian Secretary of Justice Raul Gonzales government doesn’t have all the money City just two years before. Both slay- directed prosecutors to investigate for- to guard and protect the witnesses for ings are among the nationwide toll of mer Pagadian City Police Chief Azuri an extended time.” 48 journalists who have been mur- Hawani for alleged “obstruction of jus- Damalerio and Amoro said their dered over two decades. With no con- tice and possible accessory to the families hope to enlist the help of victions in any of these murders, the crime.” Although two eyewitnesses press advocates and government offi- Damalerio case has become a test of identified Wapile, local police initially cials to resettle outside Pagadian City the Philippine judicial system. named a different suspect. Witnesses after the trial. But that may not be far “If not for the support we’ve said police wiped the crime scene clean enough, they said, and leaving the received from all over, we would have and failed to take photographs. Within Philippines might be their best chance days of the shooting, a federal investi- for survival. I Dean M. Bernardo is a freelance jour- gator urged local police to arrest nalist who contributes to the BBC, Fox Wapile—but more than two years Read “Elusive Justice,” CPJ’s 2002 report News and Global Radio News. passed before the suspect surrendered. on the case, at www.cpj.org.

34 Spring | Summer 2005 CPJ REMEMBERS

distinguished career noted for outspo- ken independence. He was president of the Gambia Press Union for a decade, treasurer of the West African Journal- ists Association, and a longtime corre- Deyda Hydara spondent for Agence France-Presse. He worked for press freedom with the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. To his final days, a fearless editor stood up In the last weeks of the year, though, Hydara stood up to the gov- for his beliefs. ernment. He was vocal in his opposi- tion to the obnoxious new press By Pap Saine laws—and he acted on his beliefs. He suspended publication of The Point for a week in protest, even though it cost the paper some lucrative adver- sary, a gunman in a passing taxicab tising. The National Assembly passed fired bullets into the head and chest of the new laws on December 14, 2004. my friend as he drove home on a dark, Two days later, the staff had a din- rural street. ner to mark our anniversary. After Hydara was 58. He leaves his wife, the gathering, Hydara gave a lift home Maria, a daughter, and three sons. to two of our staffers, Ida Jagne and Authorities arrested a local restau- Nyansarang Jobe, at around 11 p.m. A rateur in February, an ardent govern- Mercedes-Benz taxi without a license ment supporter who had quarreled bit- plate came up quickly from behind in e n i terly with Hydara over his critical Kanifing, about nine miles (15 kilome- a S p

a reporting. Yet local journalists have ters) west of Banjul. P / t n i many questions and have urged police Hydara turned off the main road, o P e to investigate the “Green Boys,” a shad- but the taxi followed, with the driver h T owy pro-government group that has flashing his headlights. As Hydara Deyda Hydara inspired many young Gambian journalists with his courage. made numerous threats against jour- slowed and the cab pulled alongside, nalists who criticize authorities. a passenger fired several times, strik- BANJUL, The Gambia There is good reason to question, ing Hydara twice and causing him to eyda Hydara was a principled given the record of threats and attacks lose control of the car. Jagne, who was man, a mentor to young on the Gambian press. Arsonists struck wounded in the attack along with Dreporters, and a fearless editor Radio 1 FM in Banjul in August 2000, Jobe, remembers crying out, “My boss who was willing to take a stand against leaving proprietor George Christensen is killed.” the government. In the days before his with burns. In October 2003, arsonists Shortly after his murder, the Gam- murder, Hydara led a campaign against set fire to the offices of The Indepen- bia News and Report named him Man repressive government-sponsored leg- dent, a private biweekly in Banjul, of the Year. Hydara was, in fact, a man islation that sets lengthy jail terms for forcing staff to relocate temporarily. of courage, humility, and generosity libel and allows editors’ homes to be Six months later, armed men stormed throughout his life. Among his good seized. a building in suburban Kanifing that works was a fund-raising campaign to We were friends for 35 years and housed The Independent’s printing rehabilitate Old Jeswang Cemetery. partners for nearly half that time in the press, setting it ablaze and injuring He was buried there on December publication of The Point, a Banjul news- three employees. 17, 2004. Three days after our friend paper printed four times a week. Our Then, on August 15, 2004, arson- and colleague was laid to rest, jour- paper was founded on December 16, ists struck the home of Ebrihima Sillah, nalists in the Gambia, Senegal, Mali, 1991. Exactly 13 years later, on the a BBC stringer in Banjul. In the weeks and Ghana marched in protest. They night we celebrated The Point’s anniver- before the attack, the Green Boys had carry on his legacy, determined to threatened Sillah in a letter to the BBC. seek justice. I Pap Saine is editor of The Point, which Journalists had much reason to be continues to provide independent news cautious as 2004 came to a close—and For updates on the Deyda Hydara for Gambians. my friend had little left to prove in a case, visit www.cpj.org.

Dangerous Assignments 35 KICKER n r e t S k c i M : n o i t a r t s u l l I

36 Spring | Summer 2005