ANNUAL REPORT 1999:
North Africa and the Middle East

Detailed country reports are available (in French) at the Reporters Sans Frontieres website

The situation in most North African and Middle East countries was still bleak in 1998. With detentions, excessive sentences for "libel", censorship, suspensions, administrative harassment, unwarranted dismissals, surveillance or expulsion of foreign journalists, banning of foreign publications and state control of broadcasting, violations of press freedom are the order of the day in the region.

In four countries (Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan), there is no press freedom whatsoever and the official media are there to relay government propaganda. Journalists are considered to be civil servants, directly accountable to the information ministry. The state of emergency in all four countries serves to justify the total absence of freedom and the use of violence to repress all opposition. Any calls for freedom of expression are likely to be met by torture and imprisonment. In Syria ten journalists have been imprisoned, tortured, and kept in inhuman conditions while serving sentences of between eight and ten years. The case of Nizar Nayyuf, sentenced in 1992 to ten years in prison, is indicative of the situation. Although he is suffering from cancer and numerous effects of torture, the military authorities have made it clear that he will be treated only if he admits to "making false statements concerning human rights in Syria" and undertakes to cease all political activity. In Libya a journalist has been in prison for 25 years. There is no guarantee that he is still alive.

The situation in Iran is a far cry from the hopes raised by President Khatami’s election in May 1997. Despite its spectacular development, the press is a victim of continuous political and legal harassment, for freedom of expression remains a hostage of the power struggle between various factions. Any room to manoeuvre enjoyed by the liberal press is totally dependent on the struggle between the different groups for political supremacy. It is out of the question, for example, to challenge Imam Khomeini or the Islamic foundations of the political system. During the year 11 newspapers were suspended, either temporarily or definitively, by the courts which are controlled by the conservatives. Several killings of intellectuals and dissidents in November 1998 were cause for profound concern among defenders of press freedom. The writer Mohamad Mokhtari, who worked for several independent newspapers, was found dead on 9 December. Apparently he had been strangled. Mohamad Mokhtari, founder of the Iranian Writers’ Association, campaigned for reforms of the current system and greater freedom of expression.

In Algeria, even though journalists are no longer the target of terrorist groups (for the second year running, no journalists have been murdered), the climate of civil war weighs heavily on their work. All information on security matters and threatened attacks is censored. The government has consolidated its takeover of the independent media which have not managed or tried to break free of the state’s economic control. Various forms of pressure have prompted journalists to censor their own work. The October 1998 conflict between official printers and the main private newspapers clearly demonstrates the ambiguity of relations between the press and the government. When the press "revealed" scandals implicating people close to President Zeroual, these printers resorted to financial disputes to try to silence the newspapers. All too often the press seems to play the game of the various political groups which share and fight for power.

Censorship continues to limit press freedom in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Mauritania, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and the territories under the control of the Palestinian Autonomous Authority. In Mauritania newspapers are suspended for publishing articles on slavery — which is supposed to have disappeared. In Lebanon, Syrian hegemony and the war in the south are subjects which may not be mentioned. The authorities use particularly strict press laws to explicitly ban any information on other subjects such as religion, the state of the army and corruption. This drastic legislation serves as a pretext for legal harassment consisting of fines, suspensions and prison sentences. Thus, press freedom is totally denied while these governments use media under their control to spread their own propaganda. In 1998 Jordan adopted a new law which blatantly restricts press freedom: newspapers can be suspended indefinitely if accused of breach of "public security or the interests of the state". These terms are sufficiently vague to leave a wide margin for interpretation by the authorities.

Whether in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt or Morocco, economic pressure is increasingly replacing political coercion. More subtly, the authorities use relations with certain press owners, who are often influential businessmen, to force these titles to toe the line. Faced with this situation and systematic charges of "libel", newspapers practise self-censorship, thus limiting their freedom of expression.

Only in Qatar and Israel, noteworthy exceptions in the region, is the press allowed to develop freely in a favourable environment. It is therefore an actor in its own right in the political debate and can at times even be described as insolent. The situation in Israel is nevertheless paradoxical: although they are free within the country, in the Occupied Territories the media are subjected to blatant abuses of power by the security forces. On the West Bank and in Gaza, tension between Israeli settlers and the Palestinian population affects the work of journalists who often have to face the hostility and aggressiveness of civilians and, above all, the army. Eleven journalists covering fighting in the Occupied Territories were seriously injured by rubber-coated lead bullets shot by the Tsahal. Witnesses on the scene of the shooting all agree that the soldiers deliberately aimed at the journalists.