14 January 2004
FREEDOM HOUSE WARNS OF DETERIORATING PRESS FREEDOM
As leaders from across the Western Hemisphere meet in Mexico this week for the Summit of the Americas, Freedom House is calling attention to "emerging and troubling" trends in democracy throughout the region.
Press freedom is deteriorating in the Americas, warns Freedom House. In its latest Freedom of the Press survey, only 18 of the 35 countries were rated "Free" (down from 21 in 2002). Political
instability and civil conflict in Colombia and Venezuela lowered
these countries' ratings to "Not Free," placing them with Cuba and Haiti as the hemisphere's most repressive environments for press freedom.
Meanwhile, restrictions worsened in Cuba last week when the government announced tighter controls over Internet use, notes Freedom House. Private citizens, who were already banned from legally accessing the Internet at home, now suffer increased government monitoring of their telephone lines in an attempt to crack down on illegal Internet surfing.
Freedom House has called on the Summit to issue a statement condemning Cuban President Fidel Castro's crackdown on independent human rights activists, librarians, writers and journalists. [It] "should issue a statement that supports a strongly worded resolution on Cuban repression to be taken up at the forthcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva," Freedom House argues.
Read Freedom House's Freedom of the Press survey: http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/pressurvey.htm
Visit these links:
- Freedom House: http://www.freedomhouse.org
- Organization of American States: http://www.oas.org
- IFEX: http://www.ifex.org
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