NEWS - Eighty European Media Campai

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Subject: NEWS - Eighty European Media Campaign for Journalists Jailed WorldWide

Eighty European Media Campaign for Journalists Jailed WorldWide

Toronto (The International Freedom Of Expression Exchange, October 14,
1999) - The following document was released by Reporters sans frontieres
(RSF), Paris: About 80 newspapers, radio stations and television
channels launched an appeal today (14 October) on behalf of journalists
currently in prison in eight countries: Burma, China, Cuba, Ethiopia,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Syria and Vietnam. The operation
has been coordinated by Reporters Sans Frontieres, which organises
sponsorship of jailed journalists by the various media. 

Burmese journalist San San Nweh, arrested in August 1994 and sentenced
to ten years in jail for "publishing information harmful to the state",
has been sponsored for five years. She is being held at Insein prison,
Rangoon, where ill-treatment and torture are common. Chinese journalist
Liu Jingsheng, who is only scheduled for release in 2007, has been
sponsored for the past three years. A contributor to the underground
magazine Freedom Forum, he is serving a 15-year sentence. His wife and
daughter have been unable to visit him since his arrest in 1992. Nizar
Nayyouf, a Syrian journalist who won the Reporters Sans Frontieres -
Fondation de France prize in 1998, was sentenced to ten years' hard
labour in 1992. His life is in danger because the authorities are
refusing to allow him treatment for leukaemia. He is also suffering from
paralysis because of the torture inflicted on him in jail. Several media
have been supporting Nayyouf for six years. A total of 77 journalists
are currently imprisoned worldwide. Another 22 have been killed in the
course of their work since the start of the year. 

"You must be able to spare three minutes to help a journalist who has
been jailed for ten years". That is the message devised by the Alice
advertising agency and selected by Reporters Sans Frontieres for this
year's "Sponsorship Day". The slogan, which is tailored to suit the case
of each journalist, is followed by the address of Reporters Sans
Frontieres' web site (www.rsf.fr), where visitors can sign online
petitions on behalf of the prisoners. As well as France, the campaign is
being conducted in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. 

The 50 newspapers taking part in the campaign will launch appeals urging
their readers to sign petitions on behalf of the journalists they are
sponsoring. The campaign will also take the form of radio advertisements
calling on listeners to take action to help imprisoned journalists. 

"The idea is to make sure that journalists whose only crime was trying
to do their work freely are not forgotten", a Reporters Sans Frontieres
spokesman said. "Sponsoring a journalist is a way of preventing silence
from becoming a second prison, a refusal to let them sink into
oblivion." 

Since the start of Reporters Sans Frontieres' work on behalf of jailed
journalists in 1989, more than half of the 100 or so sponsored have
regained their freedom. Sponsorship is not the only reason, but it is
often a help. "When I was in prison, I knew that I was not alone", said
Cuban journalist Lorenzo Paez Nunez after his release in January 1999.
"I would like to thank you all. I want you to know how important that
was for me." Christina Anyanwu, editor of The Sunday Magazine in
Nigeria, was released from jail on 16 June 1998. During a visit to
Paris, she expressed her gratitude to "all those who kept up pressure on
the Nigerian government to secure my release." 

For further information, contact RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris
75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail:
communication@xxxxxx, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr 

The information contained in this press release is the sole
responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit RSF. 

Distributed by The International Freedom Of Expression Exchange Clearing
House, 489 College St. Suite 403, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A5 CANADA, tel:
+1 416 515 9622, fax: +1 416 515 7879, e-mail: ifex@xxxxxxxx, Internet
site: http://www.ifex.org/. 

Distributed via Africa News Online.