PARIS (voa) – A prominent international media advocacy group says journalists around the world faced growing restrictions on their freedom to operate in 2001.
The Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders Wednesday said the number of journalists killed while doing their jobs remained stable at 31, compared to the numbers in 2000. But the group says arrests, threats, attacks and acts of censorship all sharply increased.
Using data collected over the past year, the organization reports that 489 journalists were arrested during 2001, a 50 percent increase over the previous year, with the largest numbers being held in Iran, Burma, China, Eritrea and Nepal.
The group says journalists were also detained in Bangledesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The report says conditions for journalists in those countries have deteriorated sharply in the past year.
Reporters Without Borders says eight journalists were killed covering the U.S.-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The organization says the list of countries where journalists were murdered includes Northern Ireland, Ukraine, the former Yugoslovia, Haiti, Spain and Colombia.
The group expressed concern over the free circulation of information in the wake of several national laws adopted for fighting terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
