Algerian Extremists Killed 27 Journalists In 1994

By Kurt Holden

Twenty-six Algerian journalists and one French reporter were killed in 1994 by Algerian terrorists in a campaign endorsed by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), according to director Robert Menard of the Paris-based Reporters Without Frontiers organization. The last victim of the year was Said Mekbel, 53-year-old editor of the secular Algerian daily Le Matin and secretary-general of the Algerian Association of Newspaper Editors. He was killed Dec. 3 by the extremist Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which called him an "apostate," and in the same message took responsibility for the killing of a schoolgirl who was not wearing a veil.

Algerian opposition newspapers did not publish on Dec. 6 in a gesture of mourning for Mr. Mekbel. The three state-run newspapers published, but two left their last pages blank and the third devoted most of its front page to the editor's death.

"It would be a colossal risk for any editor to send a reporter to Algeria," Menard said on Dec. 27. "For working journalists, Algerians and foreigners alike, the place is 100 times more dangerous than Bosnia or Rwanda. Going there is like playing Russian roulette with a journalist's life. Most editors are reluctant to make this decision."

The killings of journalists by Islamist terrorists has reinforced Algerian army efforts to prevent either the Algerian or international press from reporting or even witnessing warfare that involves death squad assassinations on both sides. After initially claiming that the number of dead in Algeria's current civil war did not exceed 3,000, the Algerian government admitted in 1994 that deaths were closer to 10,000. Independent French and Algerian journalists, however, estimate that some 30,000 persons, including more than 70 foreigners, have been killed since the civil war began in 1992.

Iranian Writers Protest Censorship

Iranian writer and anti-censorship activist Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani died in Iranian government detention in November despite efforts to free him by Iranian writers and publishers. The 63-year-old best-selling writer on Iranian history and folklore was arrested in April 1994 on charges of espionage and drug abuse. He had written that pre-Islamic Iranians had respected human rights. Iran's theocratic government construed this as criticism of the country's present Islamist regime.

Some 150 Iranian writers signed an open letter last April protesting Sirjani's arrest. A second letter signed by 134 Iranian novelists, translators and publishers protesting Iranian censorship was sent to news agencies Oct. 31. The following month the Iranian government said Sirjani had died of a heart attack, although his family said he had no history of either heart or drug problems.

Pakistani Journalists Assassinated

Pakistani journalists wearing black sashes on their sleeves led a one-day country-wide strike on Dec. 9 and marched in major Pakistani cities to protest assassinations of two colleagues by ethnic and sectarian gangs.

The murdered journalists were editor Mohammad Salahuddin of Takbeer, Pakistan's largest-circulation weekly, killed Dec. 4, and Ghulam Mohammad Samdani, circulation manager of another newspaper who was killed by three gunmen who arrived at his office Dec. 6 looking for the editor, who was not in the office. The killings followed distribution by an unidentified group in Karachi of a hit list containing the names of prominent journalists.

"A strong free country and a strong free press are inseparable," said spokesman Asad Abid for the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, which called the strike. Pakistani opposition leader Chaudhry Shujaat warned that the people who killed Salahuddin and Samdani may strike again. "What we see now may become a trend in the future," said Nawaz Raza, president of the Rawalpindi press club. "We must react now to stop more killings."

Palestinian Authority Still Challenging Its Daily Press

Copies of two Arabic-language Palestinian dailies, Al-Qudsand An-Nahar, were held up for several hours by the Palestinian National Authority for three successive days, Nov. 28-30, when they arrived in Gaza from East Jerusalem. The delays followed reports in the newspapers concerning attendance at a Hamas rally in Gaza on Nov. 26. The Palestinian police put attendance at 5,000 and some Western news organizations reported figures ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 participants. However, the banned newspapers cited the claim by Hamas organizers that 70,000 persons had participated in the rally.

Although Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali, the Palestinian police commander for Gaza, attributed the delays to heavy rains and difficulties at an Israeli checkpoint, Palestinian Minister of Information and Culture Yasir Abed Rabbo said they resulted from "a decision by the authority at the highest level." His statement implied the decision was authorized by PNA President Yasser Arafat.

Abed Rabbo criticized the decision saying: "We are against any measures that violate the freedom of the press, and they must be lifted quickly...Palestinian mouths should not and will not be shut by Palestinian hands."

An-Nahar newspaper was banned last summer by the Palestinian National Authority. Five weeks later, when it returned to newsstands on Sept. 5 with PNA approval, it no longer reflected its traditional pro-Jordanian stance but instead had adopted a pro-PLO, pro-Arafat editorial line.

During the November events, an An-Nahar spokesman avoided confrontation with the PNA, saying "everything is all right; there is no problem." However, Al-Quds editor Marwan Abu Zoulof said, "Basically the Palestinian Authority doesn't like our articles. We are trying to tell them they cannot interfere with the freedom of the press."

So far unaffected by the renewed censorship flap is the Jerusalem Times, established in February 1994 as the only English-language weekly in the occupied territories. The newspaper announced its intention last September to increase its capitalization from $500,000 to $700,000. It offered $200,000 in shares available to the public for purchase at $1 a share. Individuals were invited to visit the newspaper's headquarters in East Jerusalem for more information or to buy shares. Prospective purchasers were also invited to telephone the newspaper at (02) 273293 or 894883.

Israeli Judge Suppresses News

An Israeli judge has suppressed publication of news of the arrest of an Israeli army officer and at least three other Israelis on suspicion of organizing an armed group to attack Palestinians. According to correspondent Clyde Haberman of The New York Times, the officer is a resident of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Qiryat Arba, a hotbed of Jewish extremism and home of Baruch Goldstein, who was killed last March after machine gunning to death at least 29 Palestinian men and boys at early morning prayers in the Ibrahimi mosque in nearby Hebron.

Haberman wrote that although "information was scarce" because of Israeli suppression of the story, the arrested Israeli officer "was reportedly suspected of selling army weapons to anti-Arab extremists with roots in the banned Kach and Kahane Chai movements."

Israeli censorship also was discussed in a 1994 report by Washington Post correspondent David Hoffmann, who reminded readers last fall that military censorship has been enforced continuously in Israel since the 1950s. Both local journalists and foreign correspondents reporting from Israel must submit their reports to a military censorship office, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for prior approval before they are printed or filed. Military censors may approve, ban, or approve reports with deletions. Their decisions are not subject to legal appeal.

Media that violate the rules may be closed by the Israeli government. Correspondents who violate the rules lose access to Israeli government officials and briefings. Hoffman wrote his report as he completed three years as chief Washington Post correspondent in Israel.

Yemen Bans Independent Press

Yemen's unprecedented experiment in freedom of the press came to an abrupt end on Oct. 3, according to the publishers of Ash-Shuranewspaper in San'a, with a government decree prohibiting the printing of all independent and opposition newspapers and magazines. The Union of Supportive Shurists and the Federation of Yemeni Popular Forces, in whose names Ash-Shura is published, called upon U.S. President Bill Clinton and "all forces that support democracy and human rights to stand together in support of Yemeni journalism and the Yemeni press...toward the establishment of a true democracy in Yemen and elsewhere."

The two organizations noted that "since 1990 Yemen had been going through a democratic transformation unequaled and unprecedented in the Arab world." In a joint statement they said that "with the freedom of the press and the freedom to organize in political parties and then the general parliamentary elections, Yemen was on the way to true democracy." The two parties blamed the 1993 civil war that followed the May 1990 unification of the north and south for the reversal of Yemen's progress toward political democracy

"Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of the former North, emerged victorious, and in a coalition with the ultra-conservative Islamic party 'Islah'—an alliance of tribal leaders, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Salafi movement—immediately began to consolidate his power," the joint statement said. "The constitution was amended to give the president supreme powers over political life as well as the armed forces. However, the most dangerous and blatant move was a crackdown on the 'opposition' and 'independent' newspapers and magazines."

Ash-Shura, the newspaper published by the two groups, has been charged by the Yemeni government with "direct and personal criticism of the president." Ash-Shura editors were ordered to appear in court to defend themselves against the charges.

Bosnian Toll Is 46 Journalists Killed

To date 46 journalists have been killed in the war in Bosnia, far more than the total of journalists killed in Vietnam. One of the reasons is the targeting of journalists by Serbian forces. Two recent examples were described by Jonathan Landrey of the Christian Science Monitor and Luc Delahaye, an American photographer for the Magnum photo agency.

Landrey described on Nov. 1 an encounter by four foreign journalists in the Bosnian town of Donji Lapac with Serb forces retreating from an offensive by the Bosnian Fifth Corps breaking out of the Bihac´ pocket. A Serb officer first broke up the interviews by threatening to kill the journalists if they didn't leave. When the journalists, accompanied by a U.N. officer, sought permission from the town's mayor to stay, the Serb officer pointed his assault rifle at Landrey and said, "Get out of here or I'll kill you." He then slammed the assault rifle between the shoulder blades of another journalist. When the journalists got into their car to leave, however, the Serb officer and soldiers blocked the road until the journalists handed over their notebooks.

Delahaye and a French photographer had an even more serious encounter with Serb soldiers in November when they sought to enter the Bihac´ pocket from Serb-controlled Krajina in Croatia. They were held for two days, kicked, punched, doused with cold water and then held in unheated rooms at below freezing temperatures. Finally they were made to lean against walls with their entire body weight on their heads until they collapsed. They also were subjected to a mock execution. Although they were hooded so that they would not be able to identify their individual torturers, they were able to identify their captors as a unit recruited in Belgrade by a notorious Serb gangster who recently ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Yugoslav parliament.

Serb Government Seizes Last Independent Newspaper

In efforts to stifle critical reporting from the former Yugoslavia, the government of President Slobodan Milosevic last April banished 14 foreign correspondents from Belgrade. In October, the action was appealed unsuccessfully to the Yugoslav government by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

In late December, the Yugoslav government imposed a new editor on Borba, Serbia's last independent daily newspaper. The government takeover culminated a long campaign to end the newspaper's opposition to the policies of communist-turned-nationalist strongman Milosevic. The Milosevic government's action led to confrontations within the newsroom as Borba employees sought to prevent Yugoslav Information Secretary Dragutin Brcin from taking control as editor. Two competing versions of the newspaper briefly appeared in Belgrade before opposition journalists were forced from the building.

U.N. Liberalizes Journalist Policy

One bit of good news for journalists covering the Bosnian war is a change in policy enabling them to travel on a "space available" basis in United Nations Protection Forces aircraft. The immediate effect of the policy, announced Dec. 19 by Kofi A. Annan, U.N. undersecretary-general of peacekeeping operations, will be to protect journalists from some dangerous incidents such as those described above. The long-term effect may be improved coverage of conflicts involving United Nations forces around the world.