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New York (dpa) - North Korea topped a list of the world's 10 most censored countries, while the Iraq conflict has created a "very risky environment" for journalists, the UN said Tuesday.
On the eve of the annual World Press Freedom Day, the New York- based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called North Korea "the world's deepest information void," in a report released at UN headquarters.
"There is not a single independent journalist, and all radio and television receivers in the country are sold locked to government- specified frequencies," the CPJ said.
North Korea is followed on the list by Myanmar (Burma), Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Eritrea, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Syria and Belarus.
"People in these countries are virtually isolated from the rest of the world by authoritarian rulers who muzzle the media and keep a chokehold on information through restrictive laws, fear, and intimidation," said Ann Cooper, CPJ executive director.
Meanwhile, the UN's special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said that more than 70 journalists have been killed in the past three years in Iraq, including a great number of Iraqi reporters. Many more have been severely injured and maimed.
Qazi said that Iraq was a "very risky environment" for journalists and that the world should appreciate the "courage and sacrifices" made by Iraqi journalists in covering the conflict, which has been ongoing since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003.
Qazi called on the new Iraqi government to commit itself to protecting the right of journalists to work free from intimidation and threats.
Ahead of Wednesday's World Press Freedom Day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan offered his "firm support" for the universal right to freedom of expression, but also appealed to journalists to "exercise that right responsibly and, where possible, proactively."
"On World Press Freedom Day, let us recognize that national and global media not only report on change, but are themselves agents of change," Annan said in a statement.
"We should be grateful for the work and imagination of the press. I trust old and new media alike will be able to continue their work, unencumbered by threats, fear or other constraints."
The CPJ said its study on censorship showed that governments in the 10 listed countries have total control over print and electronic media. Some of the countries did allow privately owned media outlets, but these were operated by loyalists to the regimes in question.
Libya is anachronistic even by Middle East standards because it has no independent broadcast or print media, the CPJ said.
In Uzbekistan, Belarus and Turkmenistan - the three former Soviet republics - the government's crackdown on the media has forced journalists to flee abroad. Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko, whose recent re-election was denounced by many as fraudulent, jailed reporters who covered opposition politicians and charged them with crimes such as hooliganism, CPJ said.
Cooper said there is now less press freedom in some former Soviet republics than there was in the final years of the Soviet Union, when Kremlin leaders began liberalizing the country in a process known as glasnost.
CPJ charged the Cuban government with organizing "repudiation acts" for journalists who resist censorship, including sending demonstrators to surround the journalists' homes.
The ruling military junta in Myanmar owns all daily newspapers and radio and allows no reporting on the opposition, CPJ said.
The New York-based CPJ aims to defend press freedom worldwide and keeps track of governments' harassment of journalists. It also issues annual reports on casualties suffered by members of the media covering conflicts.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
