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Press freedom 'non-existent' in N.Korea, Iran, Syria

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Washington, May 4 (IANS/AKI) North Korea, Iran and Syria are among the top 10 countries deemed worst for press freedom, according to an annual ranking by a Washington-based watchdog.

"Just 14 percent of the world's population lives in societies that enjoy vibrant coverage of public affairs, a legal environment that undergirds a free press and freedom from intrusion by the government or other political forces," the Freedom House watchdog said.

"In the world's 10 worst rated countries, independent media are either non-existent or barely able to operate," the watchdog said.

North Korea was ranked the worst country in the world for press freedom.

The one-party state owns the press in its entirety, and devotes considerable energy and resources to preventing North Koreans from hearing alternative interpretations of events, the watchdog said.

"Though foreign journalists are sometimes allowed in the country, they are being monitored carefully by special minders," Freedom House said.

North Korea, like many of the countries with the least press freedom, has kept internet penetration low and censures new media, recognising its propaganda potential.

Pyongyang has its official YouTube and Twitter handles, and web access is available only to a nationwide intranet, the Kwangmyong, that does not link to foreign sites, the watchdog noted.

The index reported no progress or backsliding in the vast majority of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, notably in Egypt.

"While two of the Arab Spring countries, Libya and Tunisia, largely retained their significant gains from the previous year, Egypt moved back into the 'Not Free' category," the report said.

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Press freedom 'non-existent' in N.Korea, Iran, Syria

NRA official: 'Our freedom is under attack'

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By Corrie MacLaggan

HOUSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and national media are demonizing law-abiding gun owners in the wake of recent violent acts, National Rifle Association leaders and political allies said on Friday at its first convention since the Connecticut school massacre.

"Our freedom is under attack like never before," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said during a leadership forum. "When a deranged criminal murders innocent children, they blame us."

The NRA is the nation's leading advocate for gun ownership. It works assiduously to defend the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution setting out the right to bear arms.

Organizers expect some 70,000 attendees at the 142nd NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Houston, which began on Friday and continues through Sunday. Since last year's meeting, a national debate about gun laws sprang up after the December shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were killed.

The NRA scored a major victory in Congress last month when it beat back a proposal supported by Obama to expand background checks for gun buyers.

At the leadership forum, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, thanked those who fought against the background checks proposal and other efforts to tighten gun control.

"That's your victory," Cruz said. "It's the victory of the American people."

But Cruz cautioned that the fight is not over. Supporters of the proposal, which is a key part of Obama's gun-control effort sparked by the Newtown shooting, have vowed to revive it.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who burst onto stage after a video showing him shooting a gun, described what he sees as a pattern: When a hate-filled person commits a horrific act, people who hate guns and hate gun owners call for more gun laws, he said. Creating more laws that criminals will ignore is not the solution, said Perry, a Republican.

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NRA official: 'Our freedom is under attack'

Freedom Under Attack: NRA Official

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President Barack Obama and national media are demonizing law-abiding gun owners in the wake of recent violent acts, National Rifle Association leaders and political allies said on Friday at its first convention since the Connecticut school massacre.

"Our freedom is under attack like never before," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said during a leadership forum. "When a deranged criminal murders innocent children, they blame us."

The NRA is the nation's leading advocate for gun ownership. It works assiduously to defend the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution setting out the right to bear arms.

(Read More: America's GunThe Rise of the AR-15)

Organizers expect some 70,000 attendees at the 142nd NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Houston, which began on Friday and continues through Sunday. Since last year's meeting, a national debate about gun laws sprang up after the December shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were killed.

The NRA scored a major victory in Congress last month when it beat back a proposal supported by Obama to expand background checks for gun buyers.

At the leadership forum, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, thanked those who fought against the background checks proposal and other efforts to tighten gun control.

"That's your victory," Cruz said. "It's the victory of the American people."

But Cruz cautioned that the fight is not over. Supporters of the proposal, which is a key part of Obama's gun-control effort sparked by the Newtown shooting, have vowed to revive it.

(Read More: Gun Sales Still Surging, but No Bang in Gun Stocks)

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Freedom Under Attack: NRA Official

World's media lament decline in freedom

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3 May 2013 Last updated at 12:05 ET

Media outlets and advocacy groups mark the 20th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day with complaints about what they see as a decline in the level of press freedom over the past year.

Some point to increasing dangers faced by journalists and new reporting restrictions, such as those recently introduced in Russia.

The proportion of the world's population living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to a report by the Washington-based advocacy group, Freedom House.

It says an overall downturn in global media freedom in 2012 was punctuated by a dramatic decline in Mali, a deterioration in Greece, and a further tightening of controls in Latin America.

Seven international broadcasters, including the BBC, meanwhile condemn challenges to what they describe as their "legitimate role" in offering free access to global media and coverage of events.

Alongside the blocking of internet services and cyber attacks, they highlight the deliberate jamming of both satellite and shortwave radio transmissions as part of a "concerted campaign of disruption" not seen since the end of the Cold War.

Some newspapers bemoan a disparity between constitutional rights and the actual restrictions they face. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) recalls an incident in January when a censor was alleged to have changed the headline and content of an editorial in the Southern Weekly newspaper without informing staff, prompting them to go on strike.

"Censorship is incompatible with progress towards a genuine advanced industrial economy," the SCMP says. "If China insists on holding back public debate, whether on web forums or in its press, it is likely that its phenomenal progress will stall."

Burma officially marked its first World Press Freedom Day after relaxing censorship and formally abolishing its censorship board earlier this the year.

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World's media lament decline in freedom

World Press Freedom Day: Authors say protests help

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NEW YORK (AP) Exiled Chinese author Yu Jie joined other writers including Salman Rushdie on the 20th observance of World Press Freedom Day in appealing to China to live up to its own constitution and laws guaranteeing freedom of expression, and calling on the public to put pressure on governments that crack down on writers.

Yu and other writers and activists were on a PEN International panel Friday highlighting a report on trends of the last five years in China's crackdown on free expression. It also marked the 20th anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly's designation of May 3 as World Press Freedom Day.

Other writers who signed onto the appeal included Mario Vargas Llosa, J.M. Coetzee, Marjane Satrapi, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Andrei Bitov and Tomas Transtromer.

Yu came to the U.S. in January after receiving asylum. He was detained several times in China last year and said he was beaten so badly that he passed out. He has said he thinks Chinese authorities will not allow him back because he has accused them of torture.

"The Chinese Communist Party's secret police hooded me and kidnapped me," said Yu, who wrote a critical biography of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, titled "China's Best Actor."

"And they bent back my fingers one by one and said that as my fingers typed 10 million characters in articles on the computer opposing the Chinese Communist Party, all 10 of my fingers should be broken. They said that they only needed to make a phone call to their senior, and then they could dig a hole and bury me alive in half an hour," he said Friday.

"In numerous nightmares, I have dreamed of the torture I experienced. That is China," Yu said.

Calls to China's U.N. Mission seeking comment Friday were not returned. In January 2012, when Yu left China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said he was unaware of Yu and reports of his departure.

"These regimes do not like being highlighted," Rushdie said. He said that when PEN focuses on a writer who has been imprisoned, 90 percent of them are freed within six months.

Is the effort worth it? "The people in trouble think this is important," Rushdie said, adding that he knew this from his own ordeal.

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World Press Freedom Day: Authors say protests help


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