New World Order of Repression?
Your Right to Know Under Attack
May 5, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
Over a decade after the "fall of communism," Russia is reverting to authoritarian control of the media, says a just released report from the French-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) in its recently issued three hundred-page report detailing the skyrocketing increases in the number of threats, attacks, and murder of journalists around the world.
From Cuba to Iran, across Asia through China to South America, information is being carefully controlled, with reporters' lives in danger, stated Reporters Sans Frontières in its 2003 report.
"Regime henchmen, armed groups, organized crime figures…agents of powerful interests" and others are responsible for a dramatic decline in freedom of the press around the world, the RSF report stated.
Many observers are particularly disturbed over Russia's reported lapse back into Soviet- era methods of handling the press.
While Europe seeks to demonstrate its independence from the U.S. in areas ranging from economics to military alliances, Europe finds Moscow an increasingly trusted partner. Russia is a growing source of gas and oil for Europe; Germany is Russia's largest investor; and France is examining military and technological ties with Moscow.
Berlin, Paris, and Moscow worked together to block U.S. intervention against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the three continue to seek world supremacy for the U.N. in all international matters.
As Russia becomes a mainstay in the New Europe, Moscow 's influence grows worldwide. As a leading force in Europe, Russia's continuing spiral down into authoritarianism - or even totalitarianism - will have a profound impact upon both Europe and around the globe, eroding the concept of a free press while lending legitimacy to the efforts of tyrants around the world to control the flow of information.
"Once again, more journalists were murdered in Russia…while doing their job than in any other European country," RSF stated.
"[Russian] government efforts to take control of the media and curb press freedom were accompanied …by imprisonment, new restrictive laws, huge fines threatening the survival of newspapers, arbitrary closures, searches and seizures of just-printed newspapers," with the target of Russian security forces being "media and journalists who were too independent or critical of the authorities," stated the RSF report.
RSF notes that "economists and sociologists from all
over the world say bluntly that an independent media
is crucial to economic and social development" in nations
which are "politely said to be 'in transition.'"
Observers openly question the direction Moscow is taking regarding the press, and are wary of the implications of the suppression of an independent, free press - not only for Russia -- but also for the entire world.
Copyright 2003
International News Analysis Today
INA Today.com
2364 Jackson St. #301
Stoughton, WI 53589 U.S.A.
Unique sources -- unique information -- news and
analysis you will find nowhere else.
Read International News Analysis.
Order 12 issues of International News Analysis
for only $29.95 U.S. funds; ($39.95 Canadian and overseas).
Mail subscriptions to:
International News Analysis
2364 Jackson St. #301
Stoughton, WI 53589 U.S.A.
Return to INA TODAY.com homepage
