Sans Frontiers Correspondents report on the freedom of the press, worrying violations in Lebanon.. Arab setbacks
In its annual report for 2003, the "Sans Frontier correspondents " organization said that the Middle East and North Africa recorded as the worst in the field of the freedom of the press.
It indicated that some 17 journalists were killed in the Arab states, considering that legal violations in Lebanon are " worrying." In its report, the organization which defends the freedom of the press which coincided with the world day for the press freedom said " this region witnesses the lowest level of the freedom of the press."
The report added this region enjoys few independent mass media and journalists in many of the countries have a self- imposed censorship. The organization considered that the war in Iraq and the continued Israeli- Palestinian conflict " makes the freedom of the press and its safety vulnerable."
Some 15 Journalists and two media assistants were killed in this area including 12 in Iraq. The " Sans Frontiers correspondents" organization stressed that role played by the " armed groups, terrorists and the political movements on the liberal press. It also indicated the American occupation of Iraq is offensive towards journalists and five of them were killed by the hands of the American soldiers during the fighting and after it. But the American officials did not make actual investigations about these events." The report said that Iran remained the largest prison in the region for journalists with some 40 journalists jailed during 2003.
The report said that there is no independent mass media in Syria, while the TV and radio in Saudi Arabia are still the monopoly of the state and the royal family greatly control the written press. But the reports indicated that certain mass media ( Saudi Arabia ) talked about increasing calls from the civil society to introduce political reforms." However, the treatment of the Qatari al-Jazeera TV of certain sensitive issues pushed the Saudi authorities to finance a rival TV station which is " al-Arabia."
The report said that the private mass media in Jordan, Yemen and the Palestinian authority areas " are not excluded from threats and audition and its journalists are met with accusations of damaging Islam." The report said that legal violations are " controversial " in Lebanon which has been always considered the only haven for the freedom of the press in the Arab states, while Egypt during the war in Iraq tried to impose a certain level of supervision on the mass media. The organization explained that the freedom of expression was exposed to great strike in Algeria, Morocco. The mass media in Tunisia, private and public, are totally supervised by the government, despite the announcement made by the Tunisian President Zine al-Abidin Bin Ali of ending the state monopoly of broadcasting.
