A combo photo for some of the journalists killed in Iraq.

On April 8, 2003, US forces hit with missiles Al-Jazeera office in Baghdad, killing its correspondent Tariq Ayyoub just a few hours before rolling into the capital.

Worst Records

US “attacks on press freedom in US-occupied Iraq” also won Washington 108^th place out of 167 on the RSF's worldwide press freedom index.

East Asia, with North Korea at the bottom of the entire list, followed by Burma 165th and China 162nd, and the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia 159th, Iran 158th, Syria 155th, Iraq 148th, were both labeled by the watchdog as the regions which have worst press freedom records.

“In these countries, an independent media either does not exist or journalists are persecuted and censored on a daily basis,” the report said.

It added that 27 journalists were jailed in the Middle East and North Africa in 2004 on various charges, including defamation, insulting the head of state or putting out false news.

“When state control of news is not enough to keep the media in line and deny the populations democratic aspirations, regimes use threats and physical attacks,” it stressed.

Describing Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Tunisia as “the worst dictatorships,” RSF said their many state security services crack down on any attempt to “report events honestly and investigate sensitive topics.”

In Egypt, where the opposition has grown bolder in criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and demanding political change, leading journalists are being “kept in line,” according to the watchdog.

Filipino photojournalist takes pictures during rally to mark World Press Freedom Day in Manila. (Reuters)

Enemies of Press

RSF’s The Enemies of Press Freedom Blacklist named all those who have personally committed crimes or grave offences against journalists or media and went unpunished.

“Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities in the countries concerned to seriously and impartially investigate these cases and to prosecute and punish those responsible,” the report said.

Eighteen names are on the list based on information gathered by the group.

They include police officers, mayors, government officials, soldiers, politicians and members of armed groups.

Countries like Gambia, Guinea, Argentina, Mexico, Bangladesh and the Philippines topped the blacklist.

The blacklist is an extension of the “predators of press freedom” list that RSF has maintained for the past few years.

New to the “predators” list are Bangladeshi Interior Minister Lutfozzaman Babor, Bangladesh's Maoist party Purbobanglar, Ivory Coast's Young Patriots militia, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and Nigeria's State Security Service.

The list also includes Chinese President President Hu Jintao, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Libya’s leader Moammar Gaddafi and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

On Europe, RSF said that European countries generally respected freedom of the press in 2004 but they can do better by eliminating jail time for media offenses.

It complained about an increase of “formal questioning of journalists, searches of media premises and seizures of documents” in Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy.

France came in for especially tough criticism, with RSF saying it had taken “a dangerous step backwards” by creating new press offenses punishable by jail terms.

The watchdog dismissed the so-called “Perben law,” named after French Justice Minister Dominique Perben, “a major threat to the privacy of sources and to independent and investigative journalists who keep a lot of material in their homes.”

Turkey, which is due to begin EU membership talks in October, has made improvements to its media laws in line with EU demands, but arbitrary imprisonments still force journalists to practice self-censorship, RSF said.

The group held up Scandinavia as a shining example of a region where press freedom is “sacrosanct” and “strongly protected and defended by law.”

RSF regretted that American judiciary has become the archenemy of press freedom nowadays.

“Protecting journalistic sources became even more of a bone of contention between the media and the courts in 2004,” the group said.

In 2004, nine journalists were arrested, and eight court cases were filed that challenged the privacy of sources, RSF recalled.

One case involves New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine correspondent Matthew Cooper, stemming from a grand jury investigation into who leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to columnist Bob Novak.

The watchdog also cited the case of a journalist under six months' house arrest for “contempt of court” after refusing to reveal sources over a secret FBI videotape made during a corruption investigation.

Cheng was awarded the 2005 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

UNESCO Award

Meanwhile, the 2005 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize went to Chinese journalist Cheng Yizhong.

“Mr Cheng represents Chinese journalism at its best; he speaks out for the weak and checks the strong. His courageous outspokenness has contributed to raising public awareness in China,” said jury president journalist Kavi Chongkittavorn.

The prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotá, on December 17 1986.

Marking the World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura called for the protection of the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Without these rights, democracy cannot prevail and development remains unattainable,” he said in a message to mark the occasion.

Since 1993, the World Press Freedom Day has been observed on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African journalists in 1991.