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Ethiopia: One in Six Jailed Journalists Are Held Without Charges
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The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
8 December 2007
Posted to the web 10 December 2007
Joe Strupp
One out of every six journalists imprisoned around the world are held without any disclosed charge, with many detained for months or years and in secret locations, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"The proportion of journalists held without any charge at all increased for the third consecutive year," the report stated.
"Eritrea and Iran account for many of these cases, but the United States has used this tactic as well. U.S. authorities have not filed charges or presented evidence against Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, held for more than five years at Guantánamo Bay, or Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, held in Iraq for more than 19 months.
The U.S. military said in November that Hussein's case would be referred to Iraqi courts for prosecution but continued to withhold details explaining the basis for the detention."
CPJ's annual tally of imprisoned journalists found there were 127 news people in jail as of Dec. 1, seven fewer than at the end of 2006.
The report credits the overall drop in large part to the release this year of 15 Ethiopian journalists "who were either acquitted or pardoned of anti-state charges stemming from a broad government crackdown on the press."
China leads the list with 29, followed by Cuba at 24 and 14 in Eritrea in Northeastern Africa.
"China, which has failed to meet its promises to improve press freedom before the 2008 Olympics, continued to be the world's leading jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for nine consecutive years," the report said. "Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, and Azerbaijan round out the top five jailers among the 24 nations that imprison journalists.
"Anti-state allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests remain the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide," CPJ found. "About 57% of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges."
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon in a statement criticized the growing practice of holding journalists without charges: "Imprisoning journalists on the basis of assertions alone should not be confused with a legal process. This is nothing less than state-sponsored abduction.
While we believe every one of these 127 journalists should be released, we are especially concerned for those detained without charge because they're often held in abysmal conditions, cut off from their lawyers and their families."
The report added that "bloggers, online editors, and Web-based reporters constitute about 39 percent of journalists jailed worldwide. Print journalists make up the largest professional category, accounting for about half of those in jail."
Other findings in the report:
• "In about 12% of cases, governments used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist's work."
• "Criminal defamation, the next most common charge, was lodged in about 7% of cases. Charges of ethnic or religious insult were filed in about 5% of cases, while violations of censorship rules account for another 2%."
• "Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6% of cases. Radio journalists account for 4%, and documentary filmmakers 2%."
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The report noted that "the longest-serving journalists in CPJ's census are Chen Renjie and Lin Youping, who were jailed in China in July 1983 for publishing a pamphlet titled Ziyou Bao (Freedom Report). Codefendant Chen Biling was later executed."
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