New York, May 3, 2001 -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) todaynamed the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press for 2001, focusing attention onindividual leaders who are responsible for the world's worst abuses againstthe media. This year, repeat offenders Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiof Iran and President Jiang Zemin of China are joined by Liberian presidentCharles Taylor at the top of CPJ's annual accounting of press tyrants.

Khamenei, the religious leader who exercises enormous influence over keyinstitutions in Iran, is the instigator of a relentless campaign that hasshuttered the country's vibrant reformist press by closing dozens ofnewspapers and jailing outspoken journalists. In Liberia, Taylor has usedcensorship, prison, and threats of violence to silence virtually allindependent media. China's Jiang appears on CPJ's list for a fifth straightyear, for maintaining the Communist Party's obsessive control overinformation, enforced in part via harsh prison sentences that have now madeChina the world's leading jailer of journalists.

In addition to Taylor, three other press offenders, each using verydifferent methods to intimidate media in their countries, are also new toCPJ's list this year: President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, PresidentVladimir Putin of Russia, and Colombian paramilitary leader Carlos Casta駉.CPJ put Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma back on the list (he last appearedin 1999), and once more named perennial press freedom offenders PresidentFidel Castro of Cuba (a seven-year veteran of the press enemies list),President Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali of Tunisia (listed for four years), andMalaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad (listed for three years).

"Although three of last year's worst press enemies -- Sierra Leonean rebelleader Foday Sankoh, Peru's Alberto Fujimori, and Slobodan Milosevic ofYugoslavia -- were ousted from power in the past year, there was no shortageof candidates to replace them," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper."Whether they are sly or blatant, the goal of each of these leaders is tohold on to political power by controlling information and mufflingcriticism," Cooper said.

"President Putin, for example, pays lip service to press freedom in Russia,but then maneuvers in the shadows to centralize control of the media, stiflecriticism, and destroy the independent press. Others, like Mahathir inMalaysia, don't even bother to try to hide their abuses behind a screen ofempty rhetoric," said Cooper. "We hope that by naming these ten presstyrants, we can focus world attention on their deeds and, by exposing them,bring about change."

ENEMIES OF THE PRESS, 2001

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's fiery April 2000 sermon against the press inspiredan unsparing campaign of repression against Iran's reformist media thatcontinues to this day. To date, the conservative courts have banned morethan 30 papers and jailed the country's best-known liberal journalists. Whenparliament debated reversing harsh provisions of Iran's notorious press law,Khamenei stopped things cold, declaring that any easing of the rules was not"in the interests of the system and the revolution." Today, the press lawremains untouched, and at least nine journalists (including CPJ 2000International Press Freedom Award winner Mashallah Shamsolvaezin) languishin jail.

CHARLES TAYLOR, President of Liberia. Since he became president of thiswar-plagued nation in 1997, Charles Taylor has been single-minded inclamping down on the independent press. He has jailed outspoken journalistson trumped-up charges, censored some media outfits at will, and forcedothers out of business through abusive tax audits. The popular Star Radiowas effectively banned in March 2000. Since August, at least eightjournalists have been jailed in Liberia on baseless charges of espionage. InSeptember, Taylor, known for his erratic and bloody tactics, pledged tobecome "ferocious" with local media that did not toe his line. Severalpapers immediately closed down and their staffs fled the country en masse.

JIANG ZEMIN, President of The People's Republic of China. Jiang Zeminpresides over the world's most elaborate system of media control. Twenty-twojournalists were jailed for their work in China at the end of last year,more than in any other country. Wary of the Internet's potential power tobreak the state's information monopoly, Jiang has poured huge resources intopolicing online content. His campaign to strengthen "ideological conformity"has led to closings or reorganizations at several media outlets that hadbegun operating with a degree of editorial independence.

ROBERT MUGABE, President of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe's government haslaunched an all-out war against independent media, using weapons that rangefrom lawsuits to physical violence. Since January 1999, two localjournalists have been tortured and two foreign correspondents expelled,while the secret service screens e-mail and Internet communications topreserve "national security." Bomb attacks twice damaged the premises of theindependent Daily News; the second bombing followed close on the heels of acall from Mugabe's information minister to silence that paper "once and forall." Meanwhile, Mugabe makes liberal use of his courts to prosecuteindependent journalists for criminal defamation.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, President of Russia. Since taking office last year, VladimirPutin has presided over an alarming assault on press freedom in Russia. TheKremlin imposed censorship in Chechnya, orchestrated legal harassmentagainst private media outlets, and granted sweeping powers of surveillanceto the security services. Despite Putin's professed goal of imposing therule of law, numerous violent attacks on journalists have been carried outwith impunity across Russia. In an ominous and dramatic move this April, theKremlin-controlled Gazprom corporation took over NTV, the country's onlyindependent national television network. Within days, the Gazprom coup hadshut down a prominent Moscow daily and ousted the journalists in charge ofthe country's most prestigious newsweekly. Despite Gazprom's insistence thatthe changes were strictly business, the main beneficiary was Putin himself,whose primary critics have now been silenced.

CARLOS CASTA袿, Leader of the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).Even against the violent backdrop of Colombia's escalating civil war, inwhich all sides have targeted journalists, Carlos Casta駉 stands out as aruthless enemy of the press. The leader of the United Self Defense Forces ofColombia (AUC), the ultra-violent right-wing paramilitary organization,Casta駉 has been formally charged with ordering the 1999 murder ofcommentator and political satirist Jaime Garz髇. His AUC has been implicatedin the murders of at least four other journalists and at least one case oftorture. Casta駉's vicious public relations strategy is to grant frequentinterviews to journalists who defend his actions, while using violence andthreats of violence to terrorize those whose coverage he dislikes.

LEONID KUCHMA, President of Ukraine. Leonid Kuchma's government has steppedup its habitual censorship of opposition newspapers and increased attacksand threats against independent journalists. The disappearance and presumedmurder of Internet editor Georgy Gongadze late last year brought the plightof Ukrainian journalists into sharp focus. Allegations that Kuchma himselfmay have directed the elimination of Gongadze sparked a political crisisthat threatened to bring down his government, and police security servicesmade numerous attempts to muzzle publications that carried coverage criticalof the Gongadze scandal.

FIDEL CASTRO, President of Cuba. Fidel Castro's government continues itsscorched-earth assault on independent Cuban journalists by interrogating anddetaining reporters, monitoring and interrupting their telephone calls,restricting their travel, and routinely putting them under house arrest toprevent coverage of certain events. A new tactic of intimidation involvesarresting journalists and releasing them hundreds of miles from their homes.Meanwhile, foreign journalists who write critically of Cuba are routinelydenied visas, and early this year Castro threatened some international newsbureaus with expulsion from Cuba for "transmitting insults and lies." Cubais the only country in the Western Hemisphere that currently holds ajournalist in jail for his work. Bernardo Ar関alo Padr髇 continues to servea six year sentence for reporting critical of Castro and the CommunistParty.

ZINE AL-ABDINE BEN ALI, President of Tunisia. For more than a decade, Zineal-Abdine Ben Ali has brought Tunisia's press to almost total submissionthrough censorship and crude intimidation. Newspapers were closed.Journalists have been dismissed from their jobs, denied accreditation, putunder police surveillance, and prevented from leaving the country. Some havebeen subjected to physical abuse. With the exception of a few courageousjournalists, the totalitarian tactics of Ben Ali's police state haveproduced one of the most heavily self-censored presses in the region, whilehis propaganda machine churns out endless paeans to the dictator's supposedachievements in democracy and human rights. Last year, incredibly, Ben Alichided local journalists for self-censorship. "What are you afraid of?" thepresident asked.

MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, Prime Minister of Malaysia. Mahathir Mohamad is openlycontemptuous of press freedom. He has manipulated Malaysian media to cementhis hold on power and has signaled plans to introduce even more stringentcontrols on a severely constricted press. Officials are now consideringlegislation to regulate the Internet, a crucial venue for independent newsand opinion in a country where traditional media outlets are overwhelminglycontrolled by Mahathir's political allies. Notoriously thin-skinned, theprime minister regularly demonizes the foreign media for reporting heconsiders unfair. This past year he used the state's bureaucratic machineryto repeatedly block the circulation of international news magazines thatfeatured articles about Malaysia.

For more information about the 10 Worst Enemies of the Press and fordetailed accounts about attacks on the press worldwide, visit CPJ's Web site(www.cpj.org).

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works tosafeguard press freedom around the world. (www.cpj.org)