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Statement by Ann Cooper
Executive Director
Committee to Protect Journalists
Our research documents journalists killed, imprisoned, threatened, harassed for their work.
These are all important barometers of press freedom, which is essential for democracy, and I want to speak about those barometers today.
But I also want to tell you about a new report that we released this week to mark World Press Freedom Day.
It identifies and describes the 10 most censored countries in the world.
These are countries where the media definitely do not fulfil the theme of this panel - media as a force for change.
In fact, in these "most censored" countries, the media are a powerful force for the status quo. They are controlled by the authoritarian leaders of these countries, and manipulated by them in order to keep the leaders in power.
How do they do that? By stifling all criticism, by publishing propaganda about the leaders, by keeping "bad news" from the public.
This can reach ridiculous, even dangerous levels.
North Korea, for example, is at the top of our list of the 10 most censored countries in the world. Many of you here at the UN know very well the famine that affected millions of North Koreans in the 1990s - but was judged too sensitive by the North Korean government for media coverage.
CPJ chose to highlight the censorship in North Korea - and in Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya and five other countries - in order to illustrate the severe consequences when there is no freedom of the press.
The people who live in these countries are isolated from the rest of the world.
They are uninformed, living under rulers who tolerate no criticism.
And in some cases, they censor the press so ruthlessly that public welfare is endangered.
These 10 countries are the worst cases.
In much of the rest of the world, independent media operate to one degree or another… and with varying degrees of freedom.
Wherever there are independent media, there is bound to be friction with the government.
And that is where CPJ comes in. We document about 500 cases a year of attacks on the press - by governments, or drug lords, or criminal mafias, or others who have a reason to want to silence critical, independent reporting.
Each January we release a list of journalists killed in the previous year because of their work.
For 2005 that number was 47 - not a record, but unacceptably high.
Also unacceptable is what happens after journalists are murdered.
In far too many cases, nothing happens from the standpoint of justice - no vigorous investigation, no prosecution.
In the past decade, 85 per cent of the murders of journalists have been committed with impunity - that is, those who ordered the killings have never been arrested or prosecuted.
It's a terrible record and one with terrible consequences for journalists… particularly in the Philippines, in Colombia, and in Russia - three countries where the cycle of violence seems unlikely to end unless governments take up their responsibility to find and punish those who kill journalists.
The failure of justice in these cases is the most urgent threat facing journalists worldwide.
It helps perpetuate more violence against journalists. And it forces journalists to censor themselves.
So the lack of justice is a powerful deterrent to the free flow of information that is one of the safeguards of any democracy.
Another barometer of press freedom is our annual statistic of journalists imprisoned because of their work.
Last December, there were 125 editors, writers, and photojournalists imprisoned around the world.
It's striking to look at where these journalists are held.
Two-thirds of them are in just four countries: China, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia.
This confirms a trend we've documented in recent years: that imprisonment is most likely in just a handful of countries that have little regard for human rights.
Other countries, we believe, now shy away from this technique because of international pressure.
This is an area where advocacy - by press freedom groups, and by governments concerned about human rights and democracy - has made a real difference.
And that pressure can make a difference even in the countries that continue to routinely imprison journalists.
Concerted campaigning has won release of journalists in China, in Cuba, in Ethiopia, and I urge all governments who care about press freedom to continue their efforts to let rulers know that imprisoning journalists is an unacceptable violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I want to talk briefly about Iraq and what statistics tell us about the price journalists are paying to cover this story.
Since March of 2003, 68 journalists have been killed on duty in Iraq, along with another 24 media workers - drivers, translators and others who help the press do their jobs there.
That's 92 people who have died while working to tell the rest of the world what is happening in Iraq.
And there are other risks - kidnapping, violent attacks, detention by U.S. troops, who last year held at least 7 local Iraqi journalists for weeks or months at a time.
All but one of those 7 were released without charge. The seventh, an Iraqi cameraman for CBS news, was taken to court by the U.S. military, but an Iraqi panel of judges quickly acquitted him of charges of subversive activity.
There are numerous risks for journalists in Iraq - just as there are for everyone in that conflict zone.
But it's important to point out that those facing the greatest risks are local Iraqi journalists.
Of the 68 journalists killed to date, 49 were Iraqis.
We are often asked, are things getting better, or worse, for global press freedom.
It's difficult to summarize in that way, although the statistics from Iraq make this a particularly gloomy time for journalists trying to report the news independently.
What i would say is, we appear to be entering a time when we must continue struggling against traditional challenges to the press - while also grappling with new ones.
In the United States, for example, journalists have become increasingly frequent targets in investigations of leaks of government secrets.
This has a symbolic impact well beyond U.S. borders.
With its first amendment and strong journalistic traditions, the United States is seen in the rest of the world as a beacon for press freedom - but one that perhaps does not shine as brightly as in the past.
The internet also poses important new freedom of expression challenges in countries such as China, where the government is determined to control its use - and has pressured U.S. technology companies to assist in its censorship efforts.
My organization is 25 years old this year. We have learned much in those years about how to defend journalists' rights under Article 19.
But as we reflect on our history, we are also looking toward that future, and urging governments around the world to maintain their diligence in defending the right of all people - not just journalists - to seek and receive information freely, and without fear of reprisal.
Press release>>
Video of the panel discussion>>
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