In late November, Algeria adopted new laws regulating the media and journalism, characterized by the government as allowing for more press freedoms. But considering the government has done so much to eviscerate freedom of expression and tame independent journalism in Algeria, that characterization doesn’t hold weight.
Press Freedom & Safety
Journalists around the world face a wide range of challenges and outright threats to their work, from limits on what they can publish to intimidation and even murder. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 54 journalists were killed for their work last year. Only 9 percent of humankind lives in a country where Reporters Without Borders regards press freedom to be “good or satisfactory.” In this series of articles and interviews, WPR explores issues related to press freedom and safety around the globe.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, independent Russian journalists who refused to follow the Kremlin’s narrow rules have had to flee the country, endure persecution by Russian intelligence and suffer the suspicion of those in their new homes. Now the attempted assassination of one of their own has raised their fears to new heights.
More than 1,000 days after being imprisoned, Australian journalist Cheng Lei is still behind bars in China awaiting a verdict on spying charges. But her case does not appear to be directly work-related. It is more likely that Cheng was collateral damage of bilateral tensions between Australia and China at the time of her detention.