To
mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Reporters Without Borders
produced this map showing press freedom – or the lack of it – around the
world. White marks the gold standard of free press, while black is the
countries where journalists are at greatest peril.
DHARAMSHALA, May 4: China’s new president, Xi Jinping has been named as a
“predator of freedom of information” by the global press freedom group,
Reporters Without Borders. Coinciding with World Press Freedom
Day, May 3, the group released its updated list of 39 Predators of
Freedom of Information, which include presidents, politicians, religious
leaders, militias, and criminal organisations that censor, imprison,
kidnap, torture and kill journalists and other news providers. “These
predators of freedom of information are responsible for the worst
abuses against the news media and journalists,” Reporters Without
Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement. “They
are becoming more and more effective. In 2012, the level of violence
against news providers was unprecedented and a record number of
journalists were killed. World Press Freedom Day, which was established
on the initiative of Reporters Without Borders, must be used to pay
tribute to all journalists, professional and amateur, who have paid for
their commitment with their lives, their physical integrity or their
freedom, and to denounce the impunity enjoyed by these predators.” Xi
makes it to the notorious list along with five new “predators”
including the Jihadi group Jabhat Al-Nosra from Syria, members and
supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan’s Baloch armed
groups, and Maldives’ religious extremists. “A predator goes and
is replaced by another. It is no surprise that Xi Jinping has taken
former Chinese President Hu Jintao’s place as predator. The change of
person has not in any way affected the repressive system developed by
China’s Communist Party,” RWF said in its statement. Also
coinciding with the 20th observance of World Press Freedom Day, renowned
author Salman Rushdie joined other writers including exiled Chinese
author Yu Jie in appealing to China to live up to its own constitution
and laws guaranteeing freedom of expression, and calling on the public
to put pressure on governments that crack down on writers. The
writers were on a PEN International panel Friday in New York,
highlighting a report on trends of the last five years in China's
crackdown on free expression. "These regimes do not like being
highlighted," Rushdie, the Booker Prize winning author said while noting
that when PEN focuses on a writer who has been imprisoned, 90 percent
of them are freed within six months. Other writers who signed
onto the appeal included Mario Vargas Llosa, J.M. Coetzee, Marjane
Satrapi, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Andrei Bitov and Tomas
Transtromer.
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