DangerousAssignments covering the global press freedom struggle Spring | Summer 2004 www.cpj.org Suffering to Tell the Truth Inside Bangladesh’s Culture of Violence Committee Escape from Haiti to·Protect Journalists Doing the Dirty Work in Iraq CONTENTS Dangerous Assignments Spring|Summer 2004 Committee to Protect Journalists FROM THE DEPUTY EDITOR By Amanda Watson-Boles Executive Director: Ann Cooper Hope can be found in unlikely places. .2 Deputy Director: Joel Simon IN FOCUS By Amanda Watson-Boles Dangerous Assignments Year after year, violent street demonstrations leave Venezuelan Editor: Susan Ellingwood journalists wounded. .3 Deputy Editor: Amanda Watson-Boles Designer: Virginia Anstett AS IT HAPPENED By Amanda Watson-Boles Printer: Photo Arts Limited A Burmese journalist gets the death sentence • Polish journalists Committee to Protect Journalists spend quality time in a tiger cage •A journalist’s murderer is Board of Directors convicted in Ivory Coast • Bush urges Tunisia’s president to respect press freedom. .4 Honorary Co-Chairmen: Walter Cronkite Terry Anderson COMMENTS: The Future of Ethiopia’s Free Press By Elias Wondimu How the Ethiopian government attacks the media on all fronts . 6 Chairman: David Laventhol CPJ REMEMBERS: Ruel Endrinal By Hector Bryant L. Macale Andrew Alexander, Franz Allina, At least 40 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines since Peter Arnett, Dean Baquet, Tom Brokaw, Josh Friedman, Anne Garrels, 1986. Ruel Endrinal became this year’s latest victim. .7 James C. Goodale, Cheryl Gould, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Alberto Getting the Story Ibargüen, Gwen Ifill, Steven L. Isenberg, Jane Kramer, Anthony CPJ’s Hani Sabra talks with an Iraqi journalist about the dangers Lewis, David Marash, Kati Marton, of working in Iraq. .8 Michael Massing, Geraldine Fabrikant Metz, Victor Navasky, Burl Osborne, Lucky to Be Alive By Elisabeth Witchel Charles L. Overby, Clarence Page, with reporting by Jean Roland Chery Norman Pearlstine, Erwin Potts, Dan Rather, Gene Roberts, Sandra For an exiled Haitian journalist, escaping his country was just as Mims Rowe, John Seigenthaler, dangerous as working in it. .11 Paul E. Steiger, and Paul C. Tash Culture of Violence By Abi Wright Published by the Committee to Elections may bring new leaders to power, but Bangladeshi Protect Journalists, 330 Seventh politicians from both sides let violent attacks against journalists Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001; (212) 465-1004; [email protected]. go unpunished. .14 PLUS: Justice Delayed By Abi Wright . .18 Real Courage By Ann Cooper . .20 DISPATCHES: Old Habits By Nathan Hodge Are Russian security agents forcing journalists there to revert to Soviet-style self-censorship? . .21 NEWSMAKERS: The People’s Radio By Aloys Niyoyita One man uses his radio station to bring reconciliation to a country ravaged by ethnic conflict. .24 CORRESPONDENTS: Missing By Alex Lupis On the cover: A peaceful student Correspondents in Russia try to unravel the mystery behind demonstration turns violent in a Chechen journalist’s abduction. .27 Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, in March. This photo was the last one taken by IN THE NEWS: The Silence of Quiet Diplomacy By Julia Crawford Prothom Alo’s Firoz Chowdhury, who As the strongest democracy in its region, South Africa should be was then severely beaten by members condemning the dictatorial regime of Zimbabwean President of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s student wing. Chowdhury Robert Mubage. .30 remains hospitalized. KICKER By Mick Stern . 32 Photo: Prothom Alo/Firoz Chowdhury Dangerous Assignments 1 FROM THE DEPUTY EDITOR Against the Odds f you read CPJ’s news alerts on a daily basis, it’s hard not to become disheartened at the state of press freedom, and concerned for the many journalists around the world who are under Iconstant legal and physical attack. We think it’s important to highlight these stories in-depth in Dangerous Assignments, but we also know that there is more to them than shock and sadness. In fact, the stories you will find in this issue are as hopeful as they are horrifying, because many of these journalists have overcome great odds to continue their work. In our cover story (page 14), CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Abi Wright takes you inside the media in Bangladesh, where both of the country’s political parties target journalists with harass- ment, violent attacks, and murder. Almost all of these crimes go unpunished, but members of the press there say they are determined to report the news, despite hazardous conditions. Haiti is another country where a polarized political climate has put journalists at risk. With some help from CPJ and others, one very lucky radio reporter, Pierre Elisem, was evacuated after a vicious attack. CPJ Journalist Assistance Coordinator Elisabeth Witchel visited Elisem in exile in the Dominican Republic to learn about his daring escape from his troubled nation (page 11). In Zimbabwe, several journalists have also been forced into exile by the repressive regime of President Robert Mugabe. CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Julia Crawford examines why the South African government refuses to criticize Mugabe—and how journalists there are hoping to change that policy (page 30). Elsewhere in Africa, Burundian journalist Aloys Niyoyita brings you the story of Radio Publique Africaine, a media outlet that employs journalists who previously fought on two different sides of a brutal ethnic conflict that has killed 300,000 people (page 24). In the process, the station has helped foster peace and reconciliation in a country where some thought that was never possible. But peace seems a long way off in Iraq, where the security situation has deteriorated even fur- ther, so much so that Western news organizations are relying more and more on local stringers and journalists for firsthand reporting. As CPJ Researcher Hani Sabra’s interview with an Iraqi jour- nalist working for a Western media outlet shows, being a local reporter in Iraq has become more dangerous than ever (page 8). War also lingers in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya. Last summer, journalist Ali Astamirov, a stringer who covered Chechnya for Agence France-Presse, was abducted by unknown assailants. CPJ Europe Program Coordinator Alex Lupis investigates who was behind the kidnap- ping: Russian authorities or Chechen rebels? (page 27) No one knows for sure, and Astamirov remains missing. But hope lies in the fact that his colleagues continue searching—and continue the hard work of covering a war in the face of dangers and tough restrictions. Ⅲ —Amanda Watson-Boles AP/Pavel Rahman Culture of Violence, page 14 AP/Murad Sezer AP/Themba Hadebe Getting the Story, page 8 The Silence of Quiet Diplomacy, page 30 2 Spring | Summer 2004 IN FOCUS anes d Y AP/Howar AP/Javier Galeano Caracas, Venezuela elipe Izquierdo (being carried in wounded while covering demonstra- unrest and hundreds were wounded, both pictures above) knows tions in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. according to CPJ sources. Fwhat he’s talking about when he In January 2003, when the country As a result of these attacks, says his job is dangerous. “The polit- was paralyzed by a two-month gen- Izquierdo has decided to work with ical situation is so polarized in eral strike aimed at ousting President lighter equipment so he can escape Venezuela that it is very difficult to Hugo Chávez Frías, opposition more easily should he find himself in work as a journalist. … Someone like activists clashed with National Guard danger again. He says he also plans to me, who is clearly identified as a troops, and Izquierdo was hit in the wear military boots, in addition to the journalist because I’m carrying a head with a rock (above left). bulletproof vest, gas mask, and hel- camera, has to keep a very low pro- Fast-forward one year, and things met he already dons for protection. file while covering street protests. don’t seem all that different in the The cameraman is recovering, Any comment can be taken as an streets of Caracas. On February 29, but he still has difficulty walking. offense, and you can be physically 2004, Izquierdo was hurt again, this Nonetheless, he is determined to attacked, threatened, or intimidated time when he was shot in the foot continue filming the news. “Next by either side.” (above right) while filming protesters time, I’m going to be more cautious. Twice in two years, Izquierdo, a who had filled the city to demand a I’m going to feel afraid, but I’m still cameraman for the international tel- recall on Chávez’s presidency. In all, going to do my work.” Ⅲ evision channel Univisión, has been nine people were killed during the — Amanda Watson-Boles Dangerous Assignments 3 AS IT HAPPENED A look at recent red-letter cases from the CPJ files… November international community for the gas in his face, throwing him to the development of soccer in the country ground, and repeatedly kicking him 13 Cuban journalist Bernardo Rogelio had been spent. in the head and chest. Although Arévalo Padrón is released after serv- police have not yet determined a ing six years in prison on “disre- December motive for the attack, his colleagues spect” charges for alleging during a at Respekt believe that Nemecek was radio interview with a Miami-based 11 A secretary for the editor of the targeted for the paper’s hard-hitting station that while Cuban farmers Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassah is injured reports exposing corruption. starved, helicopters were taking fresh after opening a letter containing meat from the countryside to the explosives. The editor says he believes dinner table of President Fidel Castro that his paper was targeted for crit- (below) and other Communist Party icizing “political and religious fanat- officials. During his time in prison, ics in the Arab world.” says Arévalo Padrón, he suffered physical and psychological torture.