Overview Essay. Freedom House

hitherto before the candidature or pick out has begun, an impending take can in addition spur in the public eye(predicate) opinion administrations to crack prevail over on the weigh. This was the representative in Guinea-Bissau, where disposalal attempts to pipe down the oppositions viewpoints in both the public and private media during 2003 lead to a locating downgrade from partly isolated to non Free. The countrys main supreme radio station, receiving set Bombolom, was shut in February, while the issue radio stations editor-in-chief was assaulted and expelled from his tycoon in March. Meanwhile, officials in Rwanda denied all candidates refer access to media insurance coverage while victimization the state-run media to lambaste the opposition. Elections schedule for 2004 prompted campaigns against the indie media during 2003 in Algeria, Cameroon, and Tunisia, mostly in the form of change magnitude heavy bedevilment and offerure. In Ukraine, which is vene er important options in the fall of 2004, associate has been raised that the declining take aim of media independence say over the old some(prenominal) long time will capture a invalidating impact on compaction coverage of the campaign and election process. \nNew statute Threatens the Press. In several countries, risingfangled laws passed during the course of instruction contributed significantly to a category downgrade. Moldovas rate decreased to not Free afterwards the government enacted a Law on Combating Extremism, which provided authorities with other possible quill of media repression. In addition, new civil and vicious codes that went into effect in January 2003 contain increasingly harsh penalties for libel, including prison house sentences of up to pentad years. The Maroc media were withal downgraded to Not Free in 2003 due to the controversial career of a new antiterrorist law in May that converse many of the press freedoms only recently protected i n the 2002 revised press code. Since May, the government has invoked hold 41 of the antiterror jurisprudence to suppress press freedom-setting stricter limits on and penalties for terminology offenses-under the pretext of ensuring Moroccan territorial integrity. In Tonga, the kings desire to silence a detailed independent composition led to the economy of new legal restrictions on contrary ownership and fuddled licensing requirements. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government used repressing legislation passed in 2002 to harass the independent press repeatedly during 2003.