DENMARK: CARTOON JIHAD IS THE CAUSE OF LESS FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

DENMARK: CARTOONS ROW CAUSES FREE FALL IN WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX


Copenhagen, 24 Oct. (AKI) - Serious threats made to cartoonists working for Jyllands- Posten daily - which in September last year first published a series of their caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed - have caused Denmark to plummet from first to 19th place in the World Press Freedom Index 2006 published on Tuesday by the Reporters Without Borders press freedom watchdog.

"For the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists have had to have police protection due threats against them because of their work," said Reporters Without Borders. The caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed - whose image is prohibited by the Koran - were republished by scores of newspapers around the world, sparking the anger of many Muslims and riots across several continents in which at least 50 people died.

France slipped five places down the Index during the past year, and has dropped 24 places over the last five years. The increased searches of media offices and journalists' homes has worried media organisations and trade unions, Reporters Without Borders said. Last October and November's urban riots and a trade union dispute around that time involving privatisation of the Corsican firm SNCM were especially bad times for journalists, several of whom were physically attacked or threatened, the watchdog said.

The United states fell nine places since last year to 53rd in the Index. President George W. Bush "has used the pretext of national security to regard as suspicious any journalist who questions his 'war on terror,'" said Reporters Without Borders. It cited the cases of freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf, who was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives; that of Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, who has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantaomo, Cuba; and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been detained by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.

Yemen slipped four places to 149th in the Index, mainly due to the arrest of several journalists and the closure of newspapers that reprinted the Mohammed cartoons. Journalists were harrassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th). With the exception of Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Gulf States considerably improved their ranking.

Mauritania was on of the Index's major success stories in 2006, soaring to 77th from 138th last year, after an August 2005 ended the heavy censorship of the local media under the 21-year rule of former president Maauoya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

"The inability of the Palestinian Authority (134th) - to maintain stability in its territories and the behaviour of Israel (135th) outside its borders seriously threaten freedom of expression in the Middle East," warned Reporters without Borders.

Italy is ranked 40th in this year's Index, a slight improvement on 2005. Italy's previous prime minister, business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who left office in April and who controls much of the country's media, drew criticism from the watchdog, most recently for his abuse of broadcasting time during the April 2006 parliamentary election campaign.

Bosnia-Herzegovina (19th) continued its gradual rise up the Index since the end of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, and is now placed above its European Union member state neighbours Greece (32nd) and Italy.

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1) DENMARK: CARTOONS ROW CAUSES FREE FALL IN WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX