Top of the week: "Enemies of press freedom" added to list
To mark World Press Freedom Day, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sharply criticized the obstruction of journalists in many countries around the world. On Monday, it published a list of the 40 politicians and groups that it believes most severely violate press freedom.
The "press thieves" are presidents, ministers, religious leaders and armed groups, explained the organization in Paris. They use censorship, imprisonment, kidnapping, torture and, in the worst cases, murder to get at journalists. The list includes 17 presidents or prime ministers, such as Chinese head of state Hu Jintao, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Among others, the organization named the Basque ETA and the FARC guerrillas as armed underground organizations. Taliban leader Mullah Omar is also named as a suppressor of press freedom. The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the radical Islamic Hamas are also mentioned in this context.
