The Globe and Mail

“Remember all imprisoned journalists. Their pens told the truth.” – Payam Abdolsmadi, Iranian media worker in exile

Around the world journalists are being harassed, beaten, imprisoned and killed as they try to tell the truth. As World Press Freedom Day approaches on May 3, it is time to remember their sacrifice and demand that these attacks end.

The work of journalists is constrained by imprisonment, state controls, bans on publication, limited access to media and the failure of governments to provide a safe environment for their work, free from violence and threats.

This past year, Iran has exercised persistent and far-reaching repression of journalists. The disputed elections in June, 2009, prompted arrests of numerous journalists and bloggers. Many were sentenced after grossly unfair trials. Newspapers continue to be closed, including Bahar in April. And new laws have criminalized activities that amount to the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

The treatment of Emadeddin Baghi is one example. A distinguished human rights activist and journalist, Mr. Baghi has been harassed by the Iranian authorities for years. In the early morning of Dec. 28, 2009, he was arrested, shortly after the broadcast of a two-year-old interview with reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. He is now being held in the notorious Evin Prison.

While journalists in Iran are confronted with the collapse of the public space for communication, in Cuba all media outlets are controlled by the state. Journalists have to work outside this system. There are a number of journalists among the more than 50 prisoners of conscience identified by Amnesty International as being held in Cuba for criticizing the government and advocating respect for fundamental freedoms. Yosvani Anzardo Hernandez, is the director of online newspaper Candonga in Holguin who has been subjected to harassment. He was detained for 14 days in September, 2009, and threatened with prosecution because of his work as a correspondent for a Miami-based news website. Cuban law criminalizes contact with foreign press with sentences of up to 20 years. Mr. Anzardo was not charged but his computer was confiscated and access to his server and website was cut. His online newspaper has been inaccessible ever since.

In China, the systematic control of online journalism is well known. Huang Jinqiu, a writer, journalist and pro-democracy activist is serving a 12-year sentence for “subversion” after publishing political essays. Journalist and poet Shi Tao was sentenced in April, 2005, to 10 years for “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” after circulating information from the Chinese Central Propaganda Department to journalists about how to handle the 15th anniversary of the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement. And his conviction was based, in part, on information provided to the Chinese authorities by search engine Yahoo. Similarly, in February, 2010, Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years after an unfair trial for publishing articles online concerning the authorities’ handling of the Tiananmen crackdown, although his lawyers claimed the real reason was that he had publicly blamed substandard buildings for the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

In Mexico, the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN has been tracking a sharp escalation in the number of murdered journalists. Since January, 2004, a total of 32 writers – 31 print journalists and one author – have been murdered, while eight other print journalists have disappeared. Five journalists have been murdered since the beginning of the year. Few if any of these crimes have been properly investigated or punished. International PEN believes that it is likely these journalists were targeted in retaliation for their critical reporting, particularly on drug trafficking. While organized crime groups are responsible for many attacks, state agents, especially government officials and the police, are reportedly the main perpetrators of violence against journalists, and complicit in its continuance.

In April, Ramon Angeles Zapala from the newspaper Cambio de Michoacan in western Mexico, went missing after reporting on organized crime and an armed attack on an indigenous family by a local gang. His colleague at the paper, Maria Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, was last seen in November after reporting on organized crime and corrupt officials. Also in April, journalist Jade Ramirez Cuevas Villanueva, from Guadalajara University Radio, was with three activists at a meeting in Temacapulin, in Jalisco state, opposing the construction of the local El Zapotillo dam. All four were threatened with death by three men who claimed to be federal employees.

Iran, Cuba, China and Mexico are just a few of the countries where the freedom of journalists to reveal the truth and express their views is curtailed. There are many more. World Press Freedom Day provides a time to pause, focus attention on the issue, and call for the lifting of restrictions and liberation of all journalists who have been repressed for their peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

Alex Neve is secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada. Marian Botsford Fraser is chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN.