The leaders of Nigeria, Burma, Belarus, Cuba, and Indonesia are among the world's "10 Enemies of the Press" named yesterday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on World Press Freedom Day . Nigeria's military ruler, Gen Sani Abacha, was named as the worst enemy of the press. Nigeria now holds more journalists in prison than any other African nation. Tunisia, and Turkmenistan are in CPJ's annual ranking for the first time. They join Nigeria, Burma, Belarus, Cuba, Indonesia, Ethiopia, China and Jordan as the 10 countries with the worst record of press freedom.
CPJ's executive director, Mr William Orme jnr, said: "They are collectively responsible for unabated press freedom abuse that has penalised hundreds of journalists through physical attack, imprisonment, censorship, harassment, and even murder."
In Dublin, the Catholic Church's development agency, Trocaire, marked World Press Freedom Day by calling on the Government to push at the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting later this month for an oil embargo on Nigeria to protest at its military regime's violations of press freedom.
The National Union of Journalists in Ireland called for an end of the wide-spread practice of local authorities conducting business in private, or "in committee".
Local authorities and other bodies continue to hold meetings in private to discuss issues of major public interest, including planning, housing and the development of amenities, said the chairman of the NUJ's Irish executive, Michael Fisher. He called for the end of Ireland's culture of secrecy, the repeal of the Official Secrets Act and reform of Ireland's "draconian" libel laws.
National Newspapers of Ireland, the lobby group for the main newspaper titles, said in a statement figures from the World Association of Newspapers show that 138 journalists are being held in prison in 24 countries. Last year, 24 journalists were killed, bringing the total of journalists killed since 1987 to 500.
The president of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, Ms Leni Fischer, said even today journalists and the media in Europe were being hindered by arrests, reprisals and bullying. Media freedom and democracy were two sides of the same coin.