CPJ Special Report
Journalists
in Exile 2009
Sri Lankan
journalists flee under severe
pressure in the past year. Iraq and
Somalia, two deadly countries for the
press, also rank high in numbers of
journalists forced into exile.
Hundreds of journalists have been
driven into exile this decade.
Karen Phillips *
At
least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into
exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive
government crackdown on critical reporters and
editors, the Committee to Protect Journalists
says in a new survey. The surge from Sri Lanka
accounted for more than a quarter of the
journalists worldwide who fled their native
countries in the past year after being attacked,
harassed, or threatened with violence or
imprisonment.
Nearly 400 journalists
have been forced into exile worldwide since 2001,
when CPJ began compiling detailed data.
Illustrating the extraordinary dangers facing
these journalists at home, more than 330 of them
remain in exile today.
Data on exiled
journalists closely track other press freedom
indicators such as deadly violence against
journalists and impunity in those attacks. Along
with Sri Lanka, Iraq and Somalia rank high among
the nations from which journalists fled in the
past year. At least two journalists apiece from
Pakistan and Russia also sought exile in the past
year. All five countries are among the deadliest
for journalists and among the worst in solving
crimes against the press, according to CPJ
research.
“Sri Lanka is losing
its best journalists to unchecked violence and
the resulting conditions of fear and intimidation
that are driving writers and editors from their
homes,” said Joel Simon, CPJ executive  director. “This is a
sad reality in countries throughout the worlds
where governments allow attacks on the press to
go unpunished.”
Worldwide, 39 journalists
fled their home countries in the past 12
months—a decline from a record 82 in the
prior year—but consistent with annual
figures over the rest of the decade. The decline
reflects in large part circumstances in Iraq,
where two different forces have been at work.
Violence has ebbed, lessening the need to flee,
even as a number of Iraqis seeking resettlement
in the United States are still in country
awaiting approval through a special year-old
program.
As in prior years, most
journalists who fled their homes in the past 12
months were driven out by violent attack or the
threat of assault. At least five journalists who
sought exile in the past year were severely
beaten prior to their departure, CPJ research
shows. Another 24 had received threats against
their lives or those of their families.
| Sri Lankan journalists
have faced severe retribution for
producing critical coverage of government
military operations against Tamil rebels.
Upali Tennakoon, editor of
Sinhala-language weekly Rivira was
driving to his office when four men on
motorcycles smashed his car windows,
beating him and his wife with metal bars.
Though his paper was pro-government,
Tennakoon had criticized a high-ranking
army official. Following his
release from the hospital,
Tennakoon’s wife fielded a menacing
phone call urging her husband to quit
journalism “or else.” Fearing
for their safety, the couple left for
California, where they had family to
receive them. Tennakoon has followed the
investigation of his attack from afar,
but no progress has been made.
“Without information about who did
this and why, I don’t think it is
safe to go back,” he told CPJ in a
recent interview. At least nine Sri
Lankan journalists have been murdered
this decade without a single conviction
being won against an assailant, CPJ
research shows.
A veteran
journalist with more than 30 years in the
profession, Tennakoon never thought he
would leave his country. “My idea
was to one day enjoy my retirement in Sri
Lanka,” he recalled. Despite his
uncertain future, for the moment
Tennakoon is glad to be safe. “After
my attack I was afraid to go anywhere.
Now I have no fear. That is the freedom I
have in the USA.”
CPJ is releasing
its survey to mark World Refugee Day,
June 20, and to highlight the many cases
of journalists forced to leave their
native countries for doing their jobs.
The survey counts only those who fled due
to work-related persecution, who remained
in exile for at least three months, and
whose current whereabouts and activities
are known. It does not include the many
journalists and media workers who left
their countries for professional or
financial opportunities, those who left
due to general violence, or those who
were targeted for activities other than
journalism, such as political activism.
Throughout the
world, exiled journalists face lengthy
bureaucratic procedures as they establish
their new legal status, along with
significant language and cultural
adjustments as they rebuild their lives.
Many have difficulty finding work in
their profession: Since 2001, CPJ
research shows, only about one in three
have been able to continue journalism
careers in exile.
Freedom
from fear has been the sole comfort for
journalist Naqeebulla Sherzad, who was
granted asylum in Sweden in November 2008
after leaving both his career and his
family in Afghanistan. A fixer for
foreign media outlets including The
Nation and The New York Times,
Sherzad first received threats in 2006
after helping a group of foreign
correspondents work on a story near his
home village in Nangarhar province, near
the border with Pakistan.
Sherzad risked
his safety again by appealing to contacts
for the release of his friend and
colleague Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was
abducted in 2007. After Naqshbandi’s
was brutally murdered, circumstances
became increasingly dire for Sherzad as
well: His name appeared on a Taliban
death list.
At considerable
expense, Sherzad traveled to Pakistan and
then flew via Dubai to Europe, eventually
making it to Sweden by car. At 27, he has
left a promising career behind. “I
dreamed a lot as a fixer of becoming a
journalist to work in the country and
improve our profession,” said
Sherzad, who once planned to start a news
agency with Naqshbandi in Afghanistan.
|
|
Journalists in
Exile:
A Statistical Profile |
| FOR
THE YEAR JUNE 1, 2008-MAY 31,
2009 |
| TOTAL
of those who went into exile: |
39
|
| TOTAL
who returned during the year:
|
2 |
| TOTAL
still in exile |
37 |
| THE
COUNTRIES FROM WHICH THEY FLED |
| Sri
Lanka |
11
|
| Iraq
|
6
|
| Somalia |
6
|
| Ethiopia |
2
|
| Pakistan |
2
|
| Russia |
2
|
| Afghanistan |
1 |
| Azerbaijan |
1
|
| Cameroon |
1
|
| Eritrea |
1
|
| The
Gambia |
1
|
| Kyrgyzstan |
1
|
| Mexico |
1
|
| Niger |
1
|
| Rwanda |
1
|
| Thailand |
1
|
| REASONS
FOR GOING INTO EXILE |
| Violence
or the threat of violence |
29
|
| Threat
of Imprisonment |
7
|
| Harassment |
3
|
| EIGHT
YEAR PROFILE: 2001-09 |
| CPJ
began compiling data on exiled
journalists in August 2001. |
| TOTAL
of those who went into exile
|
389 |
| TOTAL
who returned during the year |
53
|
| TOTAL
still in exile |
336 |
| THE
COUNTRIES FROM WHICH THEY FLED |
| Iraq |
48 |
| Zimbabwe |
48 |
| Ethiopia |
41
|
| Somalia |
30 |
| Eritrea |
24
|
| Colombia |
20 |
| Uzbekistan |
18 |
| Sri
Lanka |
15 |
| Chad |
14 |
| Haiti |
14 |
| REASONS
FOR GOING INTO EXILE |
| Violence
or the threat of violence |
195
|
| Threat
of Imprisonment |
94
|
| Harassment: |
100 |
| RELOCATION
PLACES |
| United
States |
120 |
| United
Kingdom |
29 |
| Kenya |
24 |
| Sweden
|
22 |
| Canada |
18 |
| PROFESSIONAL
STATUS |
| Exiled
journalists who have found work
in their field: 111 (33 percent) |
| Those
who returned home and went back
to their profession: 35 (66
percent) |
|
After a record high
number of journalists fleeing Iraq in 2007-08,
CPJ research shows the number dropping. Part of
the decline is related to improving security
conditions. Part is due to journalists awaiting
approval from the U.S. resettlement program.
The program, an
initiative of the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of
2008, which CPJ supported, allows Iraqis
affiliated with the United States (including U.S.
media outlets) to apply for direct resettlement
to the United States from Iraq, Jordan, and
Egypt. Though the program marks a clear
improvement over prior policies, human rights
groups haveexpressed concern that the program,
created to expedite the cases of vulnerable
Iraqis, is slow moving, resettling just 9 percent
of its 15,627 applicants, according to a new
report from Human Rights First. CPJ knows of only
five journalists who have been resettled to date
under the legislation. The precise number of
journalist applicants is not clear; the U.S.
government has not broken down figures by
profession.
Ruthie Epstein,
coordinator of Lifeline for Iraqi Refugees
Program at Human Rights First, said Iraqis who
have applied through the new program can expect
to wait one to two years before they can
leave—a period during which many must live
in hiding to stay out of harm’s way. Epstein
has noted that, despite fragile improvements in
security, “Baghdad and other parts of
central Iraq are still quite dangerous and the
nation as a whole is not a safe place for a mass
return of refugees.”
* Karen
Phillips es periodista freelance y exintegrante
del Programa de Asistencia a Periodistas en el Committee to Protect
Journalists en
Nueva York.
|
