Human hands on prison bars.
A journalist is jailed without charge or trial in a part of the globe that few people spend much time thinking about. Why should anyone care about Dawit Isaak, winner of this year's Golden Pen of Freedom given by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers? Mr. Isaak, 46, disappeared into a jail in Eritrea 10 years ago, and may or may not still be alive.
We should care because journalists are the canaries in the coal mine, and where they fall, free speech and the right to criticize government will tumble, too. (A government that can't be criticized is by definition perfect, and a perfect government is usually the worst government of all.) And because Eritrea is not alone in the developing world in jailing or killing journalists. Since 1992, 881 journalists have been killed for doing their jobs, according to figures from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mr. Isaak had been accepted by Sweden as a refugee, but when Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s he went back to help rebuild his country. A journalist builds by asking questions. But in Eritrea, which ranks 47th of 53 African countries on the Ibrahim Governance Index (one place better than Sudan), it is illegal to ask certain questions. Mr. Isaak, who co-founded the country's first independent newspaper, was jailed after daring to run a series of open letters criticizing the government, including one from a leading group of reformist politicians.
Natural resources are not the key to wealth or nation-building. Strong institutions and the rule of law are a nation's true pillars. Journalists are nation-builders, too, and Mr. Dawit's long imprisonment is a reminder that, in the places where they are most needed, journalists are at risk for simply doing their jobs.