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New CPJ Report Finds Record 182 Journalists Imprisoned Worldwide

For Second Consecutive Year, Turkey Is Biggest Offender With 51 Jailed Journalists; Ethiopia (31), China (20) and Kuwait (18) Also Top List of 22 Countries

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WASHINGTON, D.C.--A record 182 journalists were in prison in 22 countries at the end of 1995, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported today in Attacks on the Press in 1995, its annual book-length survey of press freedom violations around the world.

For the second consecutive year, Turkey held more journalists in jail (51) than any other country as the government continued to suppress independent reporting on the Kurdish conflict. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz to release Turkey's imprisoned journalists and rescind the laws used to punish and censor the local press.

"Turkey surpasses such totalitarian regimes as China and Syria in its willingness to throw journalists in jail," said CPJ Chair Kati Marton. "The new Turkish government should demonstrate its commitment to democracy by releasing our imprisoned colleagues and abolishing Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law and Article 312 of the Penal Code, which are inherently incompatible with press freedom."

The number of confirmed cases of imprisoned journalists in 1995 exceeds CPJ's accounting for 1994 --a then-record 173 imprisoned journalists at year's end. The increase in 1995 was largely attributable to the recent crackdown on independent journalism in Ethiopia and Nigeria. In each of the 182 cases documented in Attacks on the Press in 1995, CPJ staff researchers verified that the jailed journalists were imprisoned as a direct reprisal for their reporting and remained incarcerated on Dec. 31, 1995.

"Imprisonment is a very effective form of censorship," said William A. Orme, Jr., CPJ's executive director.

Attacks on the Press in 1995 documents that at year's end:

• At least 182 journalists were in jail, up from 173 in 1994;
  
• The four countries with the highest number of imprisoned journalists were Turkey (51), Ethiopia (31), China (20) and Kuwait (18);
  
• Vietnam, Peru, Myanmar (Burma) and Nigeria each held eight journalists in jail; and
  
• There were six jailed journalists in Syria, four in Indonesia and Algeria, and three in Zaire.
  
  

The Legal Tools Used to Imprison Journalists

Though the political contexts of these imprisonments vary widely from country to country, the incarcerations of journalists fall into several broad categories. Some representative cases:

Turkey: Isik Ocak Yurtcu, the editor of Ozgur Gundem, Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish daily, was imprisoned on Dec. 28, 1994. Charged under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law, he was convicted of publishing "separatist propaganda." He remains in prison, serving a 25-year sentence. Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law defines nongovernmental accounts of the Kurdish conflict as proscribed propaganda; publishing such independent reports is a criminal offense.

Turkey is the biggest offender in this category, but it is not unique: In Ethiopia and many other countries, journalists writing or broadcasting reports on civil war or ethnic strife are accused of violating broadly drafted hate speech laws, as if their reporting were the cause rather than a consequence of those conflicts.

Peru: Eduardo Sihue Cano, a graphic artist for the left-wing magazine Cambio, was imprisoned on June 12, 1992, and sentenced to six years in prison for being an "apologist for terrorism," a crime under Peru's 1992 anti-terrorism legislation. Under Peruvian anti-terror laws, Sihue had no right to confront his accuser; his attorney could not review evidence beforehand or otherwise challenge the government's case; the judges were hooded ("faceless") security officials with limited legal training. Sihue remains in prison.

Again, Peru is not unique. Turkey, Kuwait, Algeria, China, Iran, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam also consider the publication of news stories about armed insurgents a criminal violation of anti-terrorism laws. Special tribunals with unidentified accusers and anonymous judges are used by several other countries, including the United Kingdom, for prosecuting alleged terrorist offenses.

Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire): Abou Drahamane Sangare and Emmanuel Kore, who work for the opposition daily La Voie, were imprisoned on Dec. 21, 1995, for suggesting in print that President Henri Konan Bedie's attendance at the African Champions Cup final brought bad luck to the losing national soccer team. The two were sentenced to two years in prison for "offending the chief of state." They remain in prison.

Turkey, Indonesia, Central African Republic, Iran, Myanmar (Burma) and Cameroon and many other countries use criminal libel and slander laws to imprison reporters who write unflattering stories about the president, elected officials, spiritual leaders and businessmen.

China: Gao Yu, a free-lance journalist from Hong Kong, was imprisoned on Oct. 2, 1993. She was tried without counsel and sentenced to six years in prison for "leaking state secrets" about China's structural reforms in articles for the pro-Beijing Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly. She remains in prison.

Algeria, Vietnam and others rely on similarly arbitrary and vague definitions of national security and state secrets to imprison journalists.

Nigeria: Nosa Igiebor, the editor in chief of Nigeria's Tell magazine, was imprisoned on Dec. 23, 1995. He was arrested by six members of the State Security Service at his home in Lagos. Authorities demanded that he reveal his sources for articles critical of the government and accused him of receiving financial support from "outsiders." Igiebor's arrest and detention were confirmed by numerous CPJ sources in Nigeria. Government authorities still deny that they have detained him, however. He has not been charged with any crime.

In Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Western Sahara, Zaire, Zambia and other countries, journalists are often jailed without charges. Authorities also often deny that they are holding these journalists in jail, which makes it difficult to confirm many cases of imprisoned journalists.

Turkish Campaign Against Press Ensnares American Journalist

Almost all of the journalists prosecuted for these offenses are nationals working for local publications and broadcast outlets. One recent exception was Aliza Marcus, an American journalist working in Reuters' Istanbul bureau, who was charged in August 1995 for allegedly contravening Article 312 of the Penal Code, which makes it a crime to "incite racial hatred." Marcus' real offense was reporting on the forced evacuation of Kurdish villages by the military. She faced up to three years in prison, even though the facts in her story were never contested. The charges against Marcus were dropped after her trial prompted protests from prominent foreign journalists, including CPJ Honorary Chairman Walter Cronkite, who discussed the case in Ankara with then-Prime Minister Tansu Ciller.

"I believe international pressure made a big difference in my case, but Turkish journalists don't get the same level of international support," said Marcus, who is receiving a Freedom of the Press Award from the National Press Club in Washington today. Marcus has since left Turkey, forced out by the government's refusal to renew her press accreditation. She now works for Reuters in Cyprus.

Special Reports and Information in CPJ's Attacks Report

Drawn from the firsthand research of CPJ's full-time professional staff, Attacks on the Press in 1995 is the single most authoritative and comprehensive assessment of the status of press freedom around the world today. CPJ's staff writers examine press freedom conflicts in more than 100 countries and offer detailed information on 720 cases of imprisonment, censorship, legal harassment and physical assaults on reporters, editors and broadcasters around the world. The book features insightful commentaries on the murders of journalists in Algeria and Russia, and examines broader press freedom crises in Nigeria, Cuba and Kashmir. Christian Science Monitor correspondent David Rohde writes of his ordeal as a prisoner of the Bosnian Serbs; Palestinian journalist Imad Musa discusses arbitrary detention and censorship under Arafat; Russian reporter Masha Gessen reports on homophobic attacks against gay and lesbian journalists in 14 countries over the past five years.

Journalists Killed 1986--1995

For the first time, CPJ's annual report includes a complete list of all confirmed cases of journalists who have been killed in the line of duty in the past 10 years. More than 300 of these 456 confirmed deaths bore all the signs of deliberate political assassinations, CPJ reports. Few of these crimes have been prosecuted, however.

The five countries with the highest death tolls over the past decade were Algeria, with 53 confirmed killings, all by radical Islamist terror factions; the former Yugoslavia, where at least 45 reporters were killed in cross fire and at the hands of assassins; Colombia, with 43 deaths, most in reprisal for coverage of drug trafficking; Tajikistan, where 29 journalists were killed, the victims of death squads and armed insurgents; and the Philippines, also with 29 dead, where journalists were targeted for exposing corruption during a rocky transition to democracy.

As reported in January, CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 1995 documents 51 cases of journalists murdered in the line of duty last year. Forty-five of these deaths were political assassinations, including the murders of 24 Algerian journalists, and six resulted from combat assignments.

The Committee to Protect Journalists documents and responds to press freedom abuses around the world. From its headquarters in New York, CPJ works to get detained journalists out of jail, directs international campaigns of protest against repressive governments and provides practical safety information to reporters assigned to dangerous areas. CPJ is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization financed wholly by donations from individuals, private foundations and news organizations.

The CPJ annual report was released today in Washington, D.C., at a press conference at the National Press Club. A World Wide Web edition of Attacks on the Press in 1995 is available at http://www.cpj.org. To purchase a copy of the book, contact CPJ at 212-465-9344 x350.