Regional Trends

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA:

Mixed Responses to Political and Electoral Tensions

Journalists in East and Southern Africa suffered from a sharp increase in political pressure and violence in 2015. In the midst of Burundi’s political crisis in May, which stemmed from the president’s pursuit of a third term, nearly all independent media outlets were closed or destroyed. The loss of these outlets, especially radio stations that had been the main source of information, resulted in a dearth of reporting on critical issues. Extensive intimidation and violence against journalists by the regime of President Pierre Nkurunziza and his supporters drove many into exile.

Elsewhere in East Africa, the run-up to early 2016 elections in Uganda featured an increase in harassment of journalists attempting to cover opposition politicians. In Kenya, greater government pressure in the form of repressive laws, intimidation, and threats to withdraw state advertising resulted in a reduction in critical reporting on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his cronies. Tanzania passed two highly restrictive laws—the Statistics Act and the Cybercrimes Act—in 2015, and its newly elected president has given little indication that he will revise or repeal them. Finally, despite the release of 10 imprisoned journalists in 2015, Ethiopia continued to repress all independent reporting, and remained the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa, after Eritrea.

In Zimbabwe, journalists and media outlets were drawn into succession-related infighting among leaders of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Members of the media faced increased threats and attacks—including the abduction and disappearance of prominent local journalist Itai Dzamara—as well as continued arrests for libel that contradicted a constitutional court ruling on the issue. Meanwhile, an economic crisis in the country contributed to the closure of two media houses.

Ghana, previously the only Free country on the continent’s mainland, suffered a status decline to Partly Free as a result of several factors. Journalists encountered more attempts to limit coverage of news events and confiscations of equipment; increased violence by the police, the military, political party members, and ordinary citizens, including the first murder of a journalist in more than 20 years; and continued electricity outages that impaired media production and distribution.

However, other countries in West Africa showed encouraging improvements. Burkina Faso, which endured a coup attempt and an uncertain election in 2015, decriminalized libel and made progress on a long-stalled investigation into the murder of journalist Norbert Zongo. And Côte d’Ivoire benefited from continued openings in its private broadcasting market, as well as a reduction in attacks and harassment against the press, which came despite the potential for election-related tensions. Togo also showed some gains in an election year, especially regarding opposition candidates’ access to state media and journalists’ ability to cover the campaigns safely. However, those gains were tempered by the reintroduction of prison terms for publishing false news.

ASIA-PACIFIC:

States and Vigilantes Muzzle Controversial Speech

Journalists and commentators across much of South and Southeast Asia faced threats and deadly violence for raising controversial topics during 2015. Making matters worse, the region’s governments tended to ban and prosecute discussion of such issues rather than protecting those who dared to address them.

Extremists in Bangladesh murdered at least four bloggers and a publisher who had produced content that was critical of religious fundamentalism. Many other writers, after being threatened or injured in similar attacks, felt compelled to go silent, relocate, or flee the country. Meanwhile, the authorities temporarily blocked social media on security grounds, allegedly forced the suspension of a popular political talk show, and threatened dozens of people with contempt of court charges for signing a letter in support of a British journalist who had been convicted on similar charges in late 2014. The government also reportedly pressured private companies to withdraw advertising from two critical newspapers; in early 2016 the papers’ editors faced multiple charges of sedition, defamation, and “hurting religious sentiment.”

In India, among other killings, one journalist was burned to death by police after he accused an Uttar Pradesh government minister of corruption. Separately, Indian officials banned a documentary film on the contentious problem of violence against women in the country, and temporarily suspended broadcasts of Al-Jazeera English because the station showed a map that did not match the government’s position on Kashmir.

The Vietnamese authorities released a number of jailed bloggers and journalists in 2015, before and after the Communist Party leader’s visit to Washington in July. However, detentions of others continued during the year, as did physical assaults. Prominent bloggers were brutally beaten by thugs or plainclothes police after writing on issues including territorial disputes with China and a controversial tree-removal plan in Hanoi.

The government of Malaysia—on the defensive over a massive corruption scandal—made extensive use of sedition charges to tamp down dissent, in one case prosecuting a political cartoonist for a series of tweets. In all, at least 91 people were charged, arrested, or investigated under the sedition law during 2015, according to Amnesty International. In Maldives, the government repeatedly invoked national security in attempts to intimidate critical news outlets, and deported the crew of a German broadcaster that was investigating the country’s volatile political and security situation.

Unlike its neighbors, Sri Lanka experienced a marked improvement in press freedom conditions after a new government took power in early 2015. Journalists faced fewer threats and attacks than in previous years, investigations into past violence made progress, a number of websites were unblocked, and officials moved toward the adoption of a right to information bill.

EURASIA:

Systemic Control and Prison Terms for Journalists

Having already destroyed most platforms for dissent, several repressive regimes in Eurasia adopted a two-pronged approach toward the media in 2015: deepening systemic controls on the flow of information while making an example of the few independent journalists who continued to operate.

Russia, an innovator of modern state propaganda, expanded efforts to tightly control the news for domestic audiences and manipulate the information landscapes of several geopolitically significant neighbors, including Ukraine, Moldova, and the Baltic and Central Asian states. Domestically, the Russian government reoriented the focus of its misinformation machine from Ukraine to President Vladimir Putin’s newest foreign exploit, the military intervention in Syria. The promotion of government policies and messages became especially important amid growing economic hardship in Russia, and Kremlin-friendly media attempted to direct public discontent toward the United States and Europe, accusing them of exacerbating Russia’s economic troubles and the security situation in Syria. At the same time, authorities continued to exert pressure on the small space left for free expression, particularly targeting bloggers and journalists for their online publications. The regional Siberian broadcaster TV-2, having previously escaped the Kremlin’s cooptation of the television sector, closed in February 2015 after the expiration of its license, which was transferred to a state broadcaster.

Authorities in Azerbaijan not only tightened legislative restrictions on media in 2015, but also targeted individual journalists for legal and extralegal persecution. The staff of the online station Meydan TV faced administrative and physical harassment by officials throughout the year, as did members of their families. Spurious criminal cases against several reporters culminated in alarmingly lengthy prison terms, while other journalists were victims of violent attacks. Rasim Aliyev, an independent reporter and human rights activist, died in August after being brutally beaten by unidentified assailants. The authorities released several journalists and bloggers along with other political prisoners in March 2016, but prominent journalist Khadija Ismayilova remains behind bars, and the government’s hostile policies toward critical media show no signs of genuine change.

The government of Tajikistan took steps to make the state press agency the primary conduit for official information. And in a case that stretched the limits of absurdity, Tajik authorities sentenced Amindzhon Gulmurodzoda to two years in prison for forgery, claiming that the journalist had falsified his birth records in 1989—when he was five or six years old.

AMERICAS:

Physical Threats and Political Pressure

Press freedom in Mexico remained under extreme pressure due to violent attacks on journalists by criminal gangs and a pattern of impunity for the perpetrators. Federal agencies tasked with protecting threatened journalists and investigating crimes against the media failed to function effectively, partly due to a lack of resources. Freedom of expression advocates also expressed concern about new regulations that authorized expansive government surveillance powers under a 2014 telecommunications law.

Mexico was not the only country in the region suffering from serious violence against journalists. Threats from organized crime, corrupt officials, and abusive security forces were a problem in much of Central America, and at least six journalists were murdered in Brazil, where those working in rural sections of the country are particularly vulnerable. Brazil is regarded today as one of the most dangerous democracies for journalists to work in.

In other Latin American countries, the main source of pressure on media independence was the government. Enforcement of Ecuador’s 2013 Communication Law, which enabled more intrusive media regulation, continued to threaten freedom of expression and added to a hostile environment characterized by self-censorship, intimidation, and legal sanctions. The media regulator issued scores of fines and other administrative sanctions against various outlets, sometimes interfering directly in the details of their reporting on public officials.

Journalists in Nicaragua were subjected to rough treatment by police and others while covering demonstrations, and encountered obstruction when attempting to gain information on a new interoceanic canal project. The television sector remains dominated by a duopoly that tends to favor the government, and critics have argued that regulatory decisions are politically motivated or arbitrary, as with the abrupt 2015 closure of radio station Voz de Mujer.

In Argentina, long-standing antagonism between the government and the conservative press looked set to change after right-leaning candidate Mauricio Macri replaced incumbent president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in December. However, Macri immediately moved to undercut Kirchner’s 2009 Media Law, issuing a decree that transferred oversight powers of the two regulatory agencies created under that law to his newly formed National Agency of Telecommunications. This step prompted some observers to question the new administration's commitment to ensuring impartial regulatory enforcement.

In the United States, the media played a complicated role in an unusually crass, divisive, and intense campaign for the 2016 presidential election. The leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump, made criticism of individual journalists and outlets a major focus of his appeal, and used outrageous social-media comments to attract and divert traditional media coverage. At times he has even taunted the media industry with economic incentives, citing the effects of his appearances—or refusals to appear—on broadcasters’ viewership and revenue.

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA:

Security Concerns Fuel Censorship, Self-Censorship

Even in Middle Eastern countries without armed conflicts, concerns about terrorist attacks or military operations abroad motivated crackdowns on critical reporting and commentary as well as self-censorship on the part of journalists and social-media users.

In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for example, the authorities restricted critical or independent coverage of the war in Yemen, in part by controlling access to the border area. Observers also noted a tendency among media outlets and online commentators to avoid criticism of the Saudi-led military campaign.

In Tunisia, which suffered multiple terrorist attacks during 2015, a journalist faced terrorism charges for refusing to disclose the source of a photograph related to one attack, and a blogger was jailed for defaming the military. Journalists faced greater police aggression while attempting to report on the aftermath of terrorist violence, and some outlets displayed a closer alignment with the government on security issues.

The Iranian government attempted to shape domestic media coverage of the international agreement on its nuclear program. The Supreme National Security Council instructed media outlets to praise Iran’s team of negotiators and to avoid any talk of “a rift” between top officials. The directive targeted hard-liners who have been highly critical of the negotiations—a shift from the pressure typically exerted on journalists who support President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist policies. However, hard-line elements continued to show their strength in other ways. The intelligence division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps arrested several journalists late in the year for alleged involvement in an “infiltration network” serving hostile foreign countries.

EUROPE:

Police Interference, Violence Amid Refugee Crisis

Violence and the refugee crisis dominated the news in Europe in 2015, but they also affected how news could be covered. While not as dramatic as the Charlie Hebdo murders, attacks against journalists by various perpetrators in the Western Balkans contributed to an overall decline in media freedom there. In Serbia, multiple journalists suffered physical assaults, contributing to heightened self-censorship across the media sector. Attacks and death threats in Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina also raised concerns, with numerous violations committed against reporters who were investigating government corruption. Serious questions remain about whether these countries’ governments are genuine in their stated commitments to European norms for media freedom and independence.

In Turkey, the government took advantage of real and perceived security threats to intensify its crackdown on the media. Authorities continued to use terrorism-related laws to arrest critical journalists, censor online outlets, and deport foreign correspondents—usually in connection with the Kurdish insurgency, the conflict in Syria, or the Gülen movement.

The massive influx of migrants to Europe indirectly resulted in a variety of limitations on journalistic freedom. The most prominent case was in Hungary, where police attacked at least seven foreign journalists who were attempting to report on violent clashes between riot officers and migrants arriving at the country’s southern border. However, the authorities took other steps to limit journalists’ access to sites related to migrants and refugees, and the public media supported the government’s hostile stance toward them. In Austria, journalists reporting on the challenges posed by the migrants’ presence faced obstacles in several separate instances, revealing the government’s unease at allowing unhampered coverage of the situation. A series of attacks in Germany were attributed to far-right groups, which have been gaining strength in opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s relatively welcoming policies toward refugees. The nearly 30 attacks against journalists in Germany in 2015 ranged from death threats to physical violence at right-wing demonstrations.

Over the past 10 years, Europe as a whole has suffered the largest drop in press freedom of any region in the Freedom of the Press report. This has been driven in part by weakened European economies and shrinking advertising revenues, which have led to layoffs, closure of outlets, and further concentration of media ownership. Other contributing factors include new laws restricting media activity, and increases in violence against and intimidation of journalists in retaliation for their reporting.