[lbo-talk] Re: Reporter's death fuels fear for Russia media freedom

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 10/9/06, Michael Givel <mgivel at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Here is the rationale from their perspective
> http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/CM_2005_Me_Eng.pdf--major jail time for for
> several journalists considered an enemy of the Iranian state. No independent
> press freedom in the same report was the rationale for the ranking of Saudi
> Arabia and Libya and tightening of press freedom was cited for Tunisa.

As far as I know, there is no independent press to speak of at all in
Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia, whereas there exist many in Iran, in
print and online, some of which you can read if you can read Farsi:
e.g.,
<http://www.zanan.co.ir/>.

As for jail time, many other countries in the Middle East, as well as
elsewhere, jail more journalists than Iran, as you can see
<http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16088>
<http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=116>.

Only following Washington's priority can one believe that Iran is the
worst place for journalism in the Middle East or the fourth worst
place in the world.

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>