2006 Worst Year for Journalists

The Associated Press reports:

The number of journalists killed or jailed worldwide has reached its highest level in a decade, with arrests rising as governments seek to control the Internet, an advocacy group said Thursday.

The survey by Reporters Without Borders, a media-advocacy group, found that 81 journalists were killed last year and more than 140 are behind bars. It was the worst year for deaths since 1994, which was marked by the Rwandan genocide, civil war in Algeria and conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

And we thought freedom of speech is considered a rightful act in the West, apparently not.

‘There has never been a more dangerous time to be a journalist,’ said Lucie Morillon, Washington director of Reporters Without Borders. ‘But even more deplorable was the lack of interest, and sometimes even the failure, by democratic countries in defending everywhere the values they are supposed to incarnate.’

The blogging community is not spared either.

The report said many governments were seeking to gain more control over the Internet, a popular medium for dissent in less democratic countries and a growing source of news in the U.S.

At least 60 people are in prison worldwide for posting criticism of their governments online, from 50 in China to four in Vietnam, three in Syria and one each in Tunisia, Libya and Iran.

So should I consider myself lucky to be blogging from India?