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Press freedoms slip back in West, advance
in newly free states: watchdog
PARIS, 20 (AFP) - Press freedom is being
eroded in parts of the Western world, failing
to advance in Iraq, but making progress
in states emerging from repression, the
watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
says.
Its 2005 annual press freedom index again
puts North Korea at the bottom of the list
in 167th position, while Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway
and Switzerland share top spot.
The top 10 countries are all European.
New Zealand (12), Trinidad and Tobago (12),
Benin (25) and South Korea (34) are the
highest-ranked countries in other continents.
The Paris-based watchdog reports that Middle
Eastern countries ( Iran 164, Iraq 157,
Saudi Arabia 154, Syria 145) are among states
where journalists have the toughest time
and where government repression or armed
groups prevent the media from operating
freely.
"The situation in Iraq deteriorated
further during the year as the safety of
journalists became more precarious,"
RSF said.
"At least 24 journalists and media
assistants have been killed so far this
year, making it the mostly deadly conflict
for the media since World War II. A total
of 72 media workers have been killed since
the fighting began in March 2003."
The US army (United States in Iraq, 137)
also violated press freedom, as it did in
2003 and 2004, RSF said. "Six journalists
were jailed in Abu Ghraib prison without
explanation and not allowed to receive visits
from their lawyers, families or employers.
Four journalists were killed by US army
gunfire between September 2004 and September
2005."
Iran once again had the region's worst
record of press freedom, with seven journalists
in prison and four others provisionally
free and in danger of being returned to
jail at any moment.
"Akbar Ganji is still being held in
solitary confinement despite a more than
60-day hunger-strike, an international campaign
and several official promises to free him.
Cyber-dissident Mojtaba Saminejad has been
in jail since October 2004, serving a two-year
sentence."
Some Western democracies slipped down the
index. The United States (44) fell more
than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment
of New York Times reporter Judith Miller
and legal moves undermining the privacy
of journalistic sources.
"Canada (21) also dropped several
places due to decisions that weakened the
privacy of sources and sometimes turned
journalists into 'court auxiliaries'.
(30) also slipped, largely because of searches
of media offices, interrogations of journalists
and introduction of new press offences."
There was better news from countries which
have recently won or retained their independence,
says the report, disproving the argument
that democracy takes decades to establish
itself.
"Nine states that have had independence
(or recovered it) within the past 15 years
are among the top 60 countries -- Slovenia
(9), Estonia (11), Latvia (16), Lithuania
(21), Namibia (25), Bosnia-Hercegovina (33),
Macedonia (43), Croatia (56) and East Timor
(58)," it says.
"More and more African and Latin American
countries (Benin 25, Namibia 25, El Salvador
28, Cape Verde 29, Mauritius 34, Mali 37,
Costa Rica 41 and Bolivia 45) are getting
very good rankings."
The bottom 10 countries were listed as:
158 -- Vietnam
159 -- China
160 -- Nepal
161 -- Cuba
162 -- Libya
163 -- Myanmar
164 -- Iraq
165 -- Turkmenistan
166 -- Eritrea
167 -- North Korea
Sons of Iraq Vet to Leave Cuba for Visit
By Matthew Daly, Associated
Press Writer. Mon Oct 17, 2005.
WASHINGTON - A Cuban-American who won a
Bronze Star in Iraq but was not allowed
to return to his homeland to care for a
sick son said Monday that his children are
being allowed to visit the United States.
Under an agreement with the State Department
and the Cuban government, Sgt. Carlos Lazo's
two sons, 17-year-old Carlos Rafael Lazo
and 19-year-old Carlos Manuel Lazo, will
visit for three months. Lazo, a sergeant
in the Washington state National Guard,
plans to fly to Miami on Friday to meet
them.
The family's plight had drawn national
media attention and prompted lawmakers from
both parties to complain about the strict
limits imposed on travel to Cuba by the
Bush istration.
The rules, meant to punish the Communist
government of Fidel Castro, limit family
visits to once every three years.
"First of all, I'm very grateful for
the outcome of this," Lazo said in
an interview with The Associated Press.
"On the other hand, I feel sad because
there are thousands of Cuban-Americans -
especially in Miami - who, due to these
restrictions, cannot see their families,"
he said.
Lazo, 40, of Seattle, came to the U.S.
from Cuba by raft in 1992. Now a U.S. citizen,
he works as a counselor for the state's
social and health services department. He
ed the National Guard in 2000 and trained
as a medic.
He was sent to Iraq in April 2004 and earned
the Bronze Star for braving sniper fire
and mortar rounds while providing medical
aid to troops during a battle in Fallujah.
Lazo last saw his sons in April 2003. Last
year, on leave from Iraq, he flew to Miami
with the intent of flying on to Havana,
only to learn that the State Department
had put a hold on engers going to Cuba.
He tried again last spring after hearing
that his younger son was suffering from
a high fever. The boy was hospitalized for
10 days, then sent home with doctors still
uncertain why he was sick.
Lazo thanked a host of ers in Congress,
including Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio,
voting record), D-Wash., Sen. Byron Dorgan
(news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., Sen.
Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Rep. Jeff Flake
(news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz.
Cuba praises Ibero-American summit's
call for end to US 'blockade'
HAVANA, 17 (AFP) - Cuba praised the Ibero-American
summit for urging the United States to end
its 43-year-old embargo against the communist
island and describing it as a "blockade."
"It is historic," National Assembly
President Ricardo Alarcon told reporters.
The summit "spoke in a more precise,
exact language," he said.
The summit displayed its "rejection
of the economic war policy used by the United
States against Cuba," said Alarcon,
who is in charge of Cuban policy toward
Washington.
In a resolution attached to the summit's
final declaration Saturday in Salamanca,
Spain, countries called on Washington to
"put an end to the economic, commercial
and financial blockade that it maintains
on Cuba."
The 15th Ibero-American summit brought
together 19 heads of state and government
from Andorra, Portugal, Spain and Latin
American states.
The US State Department played down the
impact of the summit's statement.
"I think that if you look back over
the history of such statements from these
kinds of summits, this is a common statement,"
said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"It's one that you'll find if you go
back over the years, a common position that
they have held."
McCormack added that Fidel Castro's Cuba
"shouldn't take any comforts"
from such statements by US allies.
"I think while you have seen this
same type of statement concerning the embargo
and differences -- policy differences over
the embargo -- you have also seen during
that period of time over recent years, increasingly
pointed statements about European concerns
about Cuba's human rights records and the
importance of democratic reforms in Cuba,"
he said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero had also played down the statement
on Sunday, saying it had created a "false
polemic." Such resolutions, he told
Spanish radio, was "almost a conventional
ritual" at such summits.
Cuban Official Blames U.S. for Death
AP, October 18, 2005.
Cuba's Parliament speaker blamed the U.S.
government Monday for the drowning last
week of a 6-year-old Cuban boy during an
illegal migration attempt to South Florida.
The child, Julian Villasuso, died Thursday
when the boat smuggling him and 30 others
_ including his parents _ capsized in the
Straits of Florida about 45 miles south
of Key West as it was being pursued by a
Coast Guard cutter.
The boy's parents were among those the
Coast Guard later found clinging to the
overturned speedboat, which authorities
believe was captained by migrant smugglers.
The boy's body was discovered after the
craft was turned upright.
"If you arrive (in the United States)
they it you," Parliament speaker
Ricardo Alarcon told international reporters.
He was referring to American policies that
allow most Cubans who reach U.S. soil to
stay, but return most of those picked up
at sea to their homeland.
"But you have to make it, escape from
the (U.S.) Coast Guard, you have to violate
American laws, you have to risk your life,"
added Alarcon, among President Fidel Castro's
most trusted senior officials.
The child's parents _ Julian Villasuso
and Maizy Hurtado _ were released to relatives
living in Florida. The U.S. Attorney's Office
had asked Washington to it the parents
to the country because it is considering
prosecution against the smugglers.
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