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Press Freedom 2003, January 01 until today:
18 journalists killed
1 media assistant killed
128 journalists imprisoned
2 media assistans imprisoned
49 cyberdissidents imprisoned

Reporter without Borders today holds the World Press Freedom Day, the day the Annual Report on press freedom violations gets published:

"These are dark times for press freedom as the events of the past few weeks - nine journalists killed in Iraq and 26 journalists arrested and sentenced to prison terms in Cuba - have confirmed. Never before have there been so many journalists in prison around the world. All the indicators - including the numbers of journalists threatened and news media censored - show that things are getting worse."

18 journalists have been killed because of their opinion or while doing their work in the first four month of this year alone - with 25 killed during the entire year 2002. Since fighting began, one media assistant and 9 journalists have been killed, 10 wounded and 2 are still missing in Iraq alone, and the list of predators of press freedom that might be president, cabinet minister, army chief, Guide of the Revolution or leader of an armed group is long.

While nearly all of the top 15 countries scoring best in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index are European countries (with the exception of Canada and the notable exception of Costa Rica), things go downhill in Europe, too, most notably in Italy, where news diversity is under serious threat:

"Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is turning up the pressure on the state-owned television stations, has named his henchmen to help run them and continues to combine his job as head of government with being boss of a privately-owned media group. The imprisonment of journalist Stefano Surace, convicted of press offences from 30 years ago, as well as the monitoring of journalists, searches, unjustified legal summonses and confiscation of equipment, are all responsible for the country's low ranking."

Even here in Germany, where freedom and diversity of the press has been traditionally of very high value, things change to the worse - for economical and political reasons. The economical situation leads to a further concentration on the press market, reducing diversity. And in times where "security" and "fighting terrorism" is used to justify basically everything, attempts are intensified to severly weaken journalists' right to not name their sources - a long term goal especially of conservative players. As expected, things are worst in Bavaria, traditionally a highly conservative stronghold, where plans exist to "preventively" wiretrap journalists' phones (German language report) - a step that would severely infringe the ability of the media to securely contact sources, that would severely threaten press freedom.

Things are worse of course in the United States:

"The fallout from the 11 September attacks in New York is not over. Several of the laws passed to fight terrorism have raised concern and undermine the basic principal of a free flow of information. In Canada and the United States, steps have been taken to strengthen monitoring of the Internet and weaken a journalist's right not to reveal sources. In its war against what it calls "the evil-doers," the Bush Administration is little bothered by the means that are used. The news media are pressed to take sides and propaganda takes precedence over the truth. The enemy must be defeated and media that disagree must be crushed. Such black-and-white attitudes are worrying."

A free press, not ruled or influenced by governmental power, not subjected to censorship, is what a free country is characterized by. Press Freedom is a value little talked of in countries like Germany, where this freedom is taken for granted. Don't take it for granted. It's one of the most imporant values we have.