MORE ENEMIES TO PRESS FREEDOM EMERGING- RSF

PARIS 30 Apr. (IPS) Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i was again awarded as one of the world’s most ferocious enemies of the press and expression, alongside of several other leaders in the third world.

Releasing its latest report on the situation of the press, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said more than a third of the world's population now lives in countries where there is no real press freedom.

The lamed leader of the Islamic Republic was among several others RSF says are championing the cause of crackdown on the press and political dissidents.

On the occasion of the "International Freedom of the Press Day", to be celebrated worldwide and coinciding with the Workers Day of First May, RSF has drawn up a list of 30 "predators" who threaten the freedom of information in the world, mostly heads of state, but also including heads of guerrilla groups in Colombia and the Basque separatist movement, ETA.

"Too many journalists are falling victim to separatist organisations, fundamentalist religious groups, criminal gangs and drug traffickers", the international press watchdog’s General Secretary Robert Menard writes in the program for the event.

Among the leading world figures who feature on the list are Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i of the Islamic Republic, Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba, Jiang Zemin of China, Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, along with Libyan revolutionary leader Moammar Kadhafi.

Also mentioned are Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader Mollah Mohamed Omar, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, as well as the leaders of several former Soviet republics.

In Africa, the list includes Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, the newly-installed Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Francois Compaore, the brother of the Burkina Faso president.

Myanmar’s General Than Shwe, Laotian President Khamtay Siphandone and the recently sacked General secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Le Ka Phieu, in Asia, Turkey's Armed Forces Commander, Huseyin Kivrikoglu, and three Colombian guerrilla leaders, Manuel Marulanda, head of the Marxist Revoilutionary Armed Forces (FARC), Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the head of the extreme right-wing Auto-defences Unies, Carlos Castano are also listed.

RSF calculates that 32 journalists were killed last year, four fewer than in 1999 but more than the 19 who lost their lives in 1998. Four reporters have died while at work since the start of this year.

At the start of April, 74 journalists were in prison, compared to 85 on January 1, 2000, while 329 had been interrogated and more than 500 attacked.

[On orders from Mr. Khameneh'i, the Islamic Judiciary has closed some 40 publications, most of them independent or supporting reforms process and jailed a dozen of prominent and influential journalists, editors and newspapers owners-Iran Press Service adds]

But joint organisers, the World Association of Journalists (AMJ), painted an even grimmer picture: 53 journalists and others working in the media killed in 2000 and 81 imprisoned in 18 different countries when figures were drawn up on December 31.

"With an increase in investigative journalism, the Mafia, drug traffickers and other criminals, often encouraged by politicians, police or the judicial authorities, have taken upon themselves the task of silencing inquisitive journalists," says AMJ Director General Timothy Balding.

AMJ also calculates that more than 200 journalists have been killed in democratic countries in Latin America since 1990, around 100 of them in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico alone.

In most cases, blame is laid at the door of governments and democracy is no guarantee of press freedom, according to Balding, who cited the situation in the former Soviet bloc and in Eastern Europe, where he said "the free press still has to fight for survival in the face of attempts, overt or otherwise, to control it."

According to RSF's annual report, four journalists died in Russia in 2000 and as many again in Ukraine, the two countries in the region considered the most dangerous for media workers.

However, the AMJ note encouraging signs over the past decade. According to an independent American monitoring body, Freedom House, "the number of countries which can claim a free or partially free press has increased by two-thirds in the last 10 years," Balding said.

The improvements have been in central and eastern Europe, notably Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, South Africa, Nigeria and Indonesia. ENDS RSF PRESS 30401