Attacks on the Press in 2011 A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists Preface by Sandra Mims Rowe Committee to Protect Journalists Attacks on the Press in 2011 A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists Committee to Protect Journalists (212) 465-1004 330 Seventh Avenue, 11th Fl. www.cpj.org New York, NY 10001 [email protected] Twitter: @pressfreedom Facebook: @committeetoprotectjournalists Founded in 1981, the Committee to Protect Journalists responds to attacks on the press worldwide. CPJ documents hundreds of cases every year and takes action on behalf of journalists and news organizations without regard to political ideology. To maintain its independence, CPJ accepts no government funding. CPJ is funded entirely by private contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. !omson Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and !e Associated Press provided news and photo services for Attacks on the Press in 2011. Editorial Director: Bill Sweeney Senior Editor: Elana Beiser Deputy Editors: Kamal Singh Masuta, Shazdeh Omari Designer: John Emerson Chief Copy Editor: Lew Serviss Copy Editor: Lisa Flam Proofreader: Naomi Serviss : Journalists run for cover during a bombing raid in Ras Lanuf, Libya. (Reuters/Paul Conroy) © 2012 Committee to Protect Journalists, New York All rights reserved Printed by United Book Press in the United States of America Attacks on the Press in 2011: A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists : 978-0-944823-31-6 Board of Directors Sandra Mims Rowe Terry Anderson Joel Simon Andrew Alexander Rebecca MacKinnon Franz Allina Kati Marton Christiane Amanpour Michael Massing Dean Baquet Geraldine Fabrikant Metz John S. Carroll Victor Navasky Kathleen Carroll Andres Oppenheimer Rajiv Chandrasekaran Burl Osborne Sheila Coronel Clarence Page Josh Friedman Norman Pearlstine Anne Garrels Ahmed Rashid James C. Goodale Gene Roberts Cheryl Gould María Teresa Ronderos Arianna Huffington Diane Sawyer Charlayne Hunter-Gault David Schlesinger Gwen Ifill Paul C. Tash Jonathan Klein Jacob Weisberg Jane Kramer Mark Whitaker Mhamed Krichen Brian Williams David Laventhol Matthew Winkler Lara Logan Tom Brokaw Erwin Potts Steven L. Isenberg Dan Rather Anthony Lewis John Seigenthaler David Marash Paul E. Steiger Charles L. Overby Attacks on the Press in 2011 Preface by Sandra Mims Rowe i Global Issues !e Next Information Revolution: Abolishing Censorship By Joel Simon 3 !e Calculus of Risk: Awardees Work Despite Perils By Kristin Jones 10 Using Internet ‘Crime’ Laws, Authorities Ensnare Journalists By Danny O’Brien 18 More Discussion but Few Changes on Sexual Violence By Lauren Wolfe 25 As Impunity Pledges Offer Hope, Focus Turns to Action By Elisabeth Witchel 30 In Afghanistan, International Coverage Relies on Local Links By Monica Campbell 38 As Security Field Matures, the Risks Multiply By Frank Smyth 44 Africa In Africa, Development Still Comes at Freedom’s Expense By Mohamed Keita 51 Murder in Remote Kenya Reverberates Across Nation, World By Tom Rhodes with reporting from Clifford Derrick 59 COUNTRY REPORTS 66 Americas Shunning Public Interest, State Media Advance Political Goals By Carlos Lauría 97 Calderón Fails, and the Mexican Press Is Dying By Mike O’Connor 105 COUNTRY REPORTS 114 Asia Under Siege, Pakistani Media Look Inward for Solutions By Bob Dietz 139 Amid Change, China Holds Fast to Information Control By Madeline Earp 149 Undue Process in Maguindanao Massacre Trial By Shawn W. Crispin 157 COUNTRY REPORTS 164 Europe and Central Asia Cracks in the Pillar of European Press Freedom By Jean-Paul Marthoz 189 Despite Progress, Impunity Still the Norm in Russia By Nina Ognianova 199 COUNTRY REPORTS 206 Middle East and North Africa From Arab Uprisings, Five Trends to Watch By Mohamed Abdel Dayem 233 Discarding Reform, Turkey Uses the Law to Repress By Robert Mahoney 241 Fear, Uncertainty Stalk Iranian Journalists in Exile By María Salazar-Ferro and Sheryl A. Mendez 248 COUNTRY REPORTS 254 Journalists Killed Risks Shift as Coverage of Political Unrest Proves Deadly 283 CAPSULE REPORTS 288 Journalists in Prison Imprisonments Jump Worldwide, and Iran Is Worst 341 CAPSULE REPORTS 347 Contributors 448 Index by Country 450 Attacks on the Press in 2011 Preface By Sandra Mims Rowe logger Rami Nakhle leaned across the table toward a cluster of U.S. technology leaders. “People are tortured to death because their Face- bookB account is hacked. You can make a difference between life and death,” he told the Silicon Valley executives and computer engineers representing Facebook, Google, and other companies. Nakhle explained how he and his friends had been using the compa- nies’ software to smuggle video footage and news out of Syria to reporters across the world. !en he described the security bugs that enabled the authorities to track and torture them. !is was one of many dramatic moments during a September conference CPJ convened in San Francisco to connect the technology community with the journalists who risk their lives to report from some of the most restricted countries in the world. !ese journalists find themselves empowered by the digital explosion at the same time they are endangered by technological changes, both designed and unintended, that expose them to repressive forces. “!ey are brave enough,” Nakhle said of the journalists. “!ey know why they are taking these risks. With a small investment in their security, you can save many lives,” he told the group. Technology has democratized news publishing, and it has rattled regimes that equate survival with control of all aspects of society, espe- cially the flow of information. Video footage of repression from Burma to Syria to Egypt dramatically illustrates the benefits of Internet platforms and social media. Only a few years ago, much of this footage could not have been recorded easily and would never have been allowed out of a restricted country. Yet the Arab uprisings of 2011 also demonstrate the urgent need for providers and users of digital tools to fully understand the dangers of deploying them in repressive nations. i Preface As the threats to online journalists grow in scope and frequency, they also underscore CPJ’s mandate to be a truly global organization. More journalists need CPJ’s help than ever before. Because many of these online journalists are freelancers or work for small, local news outlets, they do not have the resources of large institutions behind them. !ey often lack the experience and training they need to minimize risk. Today, about half of the journalists imprisoned worldwide work primarily online. Authoritarian states can, and do, buy communications surveillance and filtering equipment from Western manufacturers. While such equipment may have been intended for law enforcement to combat terrorism or organized crime, its uses have spread well beyond that. In much of the world, the enemies of free speech are monitoring journalists and bloggers, filtering online content, and attacking news websites. During the popular uprising in Syria, authorities dragooned Internet experts into working for the regime. !e government-aligned hacking group known as the Syrian Electronic Army targeted critical press outlets and sought to undermine online reporting deemed harmful to authori- ties. Supplementing the old-fashioned beatings used to secure the names of colleagues and sources from journalists, the digital “army” has em- ployed the phishing of Facebook pages to dupe people into providing passwords and identities. From a crane high above a protest, journalists film crowds in the Yemeni city of Taiz. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah) ii 7 Attacks on the Press in 2011 In November, just days after CPJ awarded its International Press Freedom Award to the founder of the Mexican weekly Ríodoce, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, the publication’s website was forced offline by a denial-of-service attack. Ríodoce is one of the few publications in the region to report on drug trafficking. Even clearer was the message sent by the murderers of Mexican journalist María Elisabeth Macías Castro, whose mutilated body was accompanied by a computer keyboard and a cardboard placard stating her online pseudonym and threatening others who use social media to report the news. Macías’ murder in September was the first case documented by CPJ worldwide in which a journalist was killed in direct relation to reporting done on social media. CPJ is recruiting the people and acquiring the knowledge to defend online journalists. In 2010, CPJ hired Danny O’Brien as its first Internet advocacy coordinator. O’Brien, based in San Francisco, organized the September meeting between journalists and Silicon Valley technologists. !e conference was the first in what will become many efforts by CPJ to act as a bridge between Silicon Valley and the journalists who depend on their products—not only to get the news out, but also to protect them and their sources from physical harm. While the Internet has provided the equivalent of a printing press to millions of people across the world, it has also broadened the power to shutter those presses. Technology is allowing journalists to slip the chains of censorship, but that newfound freedom will be fleeting if not defended. CPJ is leading the way. Sandra Mims Rowe is chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists. iii Global Issues 1 Attacks on the Press in 2011 Global Issues !e Next Information Revolution: Abolishing Censorship 3 By Joel Simon !e Calculus of Risk: Awardees Work Despite Perils 10 By Kristin Jones Using Internet ‘Crime’ Laws, Authorities Ensnare Journalists 18 By Danny O’Brien More Discussion but Few Changes on Sexual Violence 25 By Lauren Wolfe As Impunity Pledges Offer Hope, Focus Turns to Action 30 By Elisabeth Witchel In Afghanistan, International Coverage Relies on Local Links 38 By Monica Campbell As Security Field Matures, the Risks Multiply 44 By Frank Smyth PHOTO CREDITS Section break: A Libyan rebel shouts at a cameraman during the battle for Tripoli in August. (AFP/Patrick Baz) Page 5: Police in Santiago seize a photographer during an anti-government demonstration.