Threats targeting the Asian press are rising, report says

[dArKeR]

Threats against press freedom in Asia "spiked" last year as authoritarian regimes in North Korea and Myanmar kept a tight grip on the media while the Philippines remained the deadliest place in the continent for journalists, a US-based media-rights group said yesterday.

Despite having "one of the freest presses in Asia," the Philippines was the second-deadliest country in the world after war-wracked Iraq, where 23 journalists were killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) annual survey on worldwide press freedom.

At least eight Philippine journalists, mainly rural radio broadcasters, "were gunned down in retaliation for their work," according to CPJ's report titled Attacks on the Press in 2004.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/16/2003246476