Journalists in countries all around the world come under fierce pressure not to publish stories - and often that pressure comes in the most extreme forms of violence.
Many countries don't have what we would call a free press at all: media outlets are either state-owned or the state has a considerable amount of control over what is covered. In a country such as Cuba, where the press is state-owned, information considered "detrimental to national security" is censored. Control of the media is also very tight in Ethiopia, where there are currently 11 journalists in jail. Earlier this summer the editor of one newspaper was released on bail after three months' imprisonment for publishing articles described as critical of the government.
In Malaysia a few weeks ago a journalist was jailed for writing an article about corruption in the judiciary. In Iran last June, the director of a weekly publication, Howwein Kachani, and his colleague, Hechmatollah Tabarzadi, were imprisoned and believed to have been tortured for publishing "false and insulting information" in two articles, one about the role of the judiciary in the murder of Iranian dissidents in 1998, the other about riots in Iraqi Kurdistan following the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The political stability of any given country also has serious implications for freedom of information. In Algeria, which has been caught up in a vicious civil war for years, many journalists have been killed for exposing corruption and simply telling the truth. In Colombia, 120 journalists have been killed in the past 20 years.
Threats of imprisonment and even death are, understandably, the source of a considerable amount of self-censorship all around the world.
A magazine, Index on Censorship, has reported on censorship issues from all over the world since 1972 - and has added to debates on those issues. Each issue contains news, analysis and a list of countries guilty of limiting free speech. Sadly, these lists remain as extensive today as they were almost three decades ago.
