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By Edith M. Lederer.

Rwanda and Syria joined a list of the 10 most repressive countries toward journalists alongside North Korea, Myanmar, China and Iran, according to a global media watchdog which warned Tuesday that the crackdown on reporters in authoritarian countries is worsening.

Reporters Without Borders said press freedom in the 10 countries � including Yemen, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Eritrea � continues to deteriorate.

“It is getting harder to say which is worse than the other,” the group said, with all 10 persecuting the media and blocking news and information to their citizens.

The Paris-based organization said Cuba was not in the bottom 10 for the first time since the index was created in 2002, due mainly to the release of 14 journalists and 22 activists over the summer. But it said the political dissidents and journalists still have to deal with censorship and repression by the Communist government on a daily basis.

Reporters Without Borders’ annual ranking of press freedom in 178 countries praised six northern European countries � Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland � for topping the index since it was created in 2002 and setting an example for respecting journalists and protecting the media from judicial abuse.

But it warned that the European Union risks losing its position as world leader in respecting freedom of the press, noting that while 13 of the EU’s 27 members are in the top 20 some of the other 14 are very low in the rankings including Italy at 49, Romania at 52 and Greece and Romania tied at 70.

“The defence of media freedom continues to be a battle � a battle of vigilance in the democracies of old Europe and a battle against oppression and injustice in the totalitarian regimes still scattered across the globe,” Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Jean-Francois Julliard said in the report.

He said the fate of human rights activists, journalists and bloggers “who bravely defend the right to speak out … is our constant concern.”

He reiterated the organization’s call for China to release the new Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobao, “the symbol of the pressure for free speech building up in China, which censorship for the time being is still managing to contain.”

“And we warn the Chinese authorities against taking a road from which there is no way out,” Julliard said.

According to the report, Asia’s four Communist regimes are among the 15 lowest-ranked countries with North Korea at 177th place, China at 171, Vietnam at 165 and Laos at 168.

“China, despute its dynamic media and Internet, remains in a low position because of non-stop censorship and repression, notably in Tibet and Xinjiang,” it said, while in “hellish totalitarian North Korea” where Kim Jong-il has set up his son’s succession “crackdowns have become even harsher.”

The 2010 index highlights major differences in press freedom in the four major emerging economies � China, India, Brazil and Russia.

Thanks to favourable legislative changes, Brazil rose 12 places to 58 while India dropped 17 places to 122, mainly due to extreme violence in Kashmir, the report said. In Russia, at 140, “the system remains as tightly controlled as ever, and impunity reigns unchallenged in cases of violence against journalists,” it said.

Reporters Without Borders said political violence produced “very troubling tumbles in the rankings.”

Thailand lost 23 places and is now at 153 after two journalists were killed and 15 wounded covering the army crackdown on the anti-government “Red Shirt” movement in Bangkok.

The Philippines fell 34 places to 156 following last November’s massacre of 30 media workers travelling in an election convoy in southern Maguindanao, allegedly at the hands of the governor’s supporters. It was the deadliest single attack on reporters in the world.

Rwanda fell 12 places to 169 following “the closure of leading independent publications, the climate of terror surrounding the presidential election, and Umuvugizi deputy editor Jean-Leonard Rugambage’s murder in Kigali,” the report said. He was shot dead outside his home hours after the paper published an online article linking Rwandan intelligence to the shooting of a former army chief in South Africa.

“Journalists are fleeing the country because of the repression, in an exodus almost on the scale of Somalia’s,” Reporters Without Borders said.

In Syria, which dropped eight places to 173, and Yemen, down three places to 170, the report said “press freedom is fast shrinking away” and “arbitrary detentions are still routine, as is the use of torture.”

For the fourth straight year Eritrea was at the bottom of the list, at 178.

The report said 30 journalists and four media contributors are being held incommunicado “in the most appalling conditions without any right to trial.”

[The Canadian Press]

by Eugene Ndahayo.

Deep concern over ailing health conditions of Ms. Victoire INGABIRE

5th DAY IN JAIL.

The health of the FDU-INKINGI incarcerated Chair, Ms. Victoire INGABIRE UMUHOZA, is causing real fears after police sources leakage confirmed that the opposition leader is ailing with unknown condition due to ill-treatment. The same sources revealed that in the middle of the night, the jailers rushed in a hired medical Doctor for pulse check and examinations. He immediately prescribed and administered some medications. This was confirmed by our other reliable sources today. We request for a medical parole. She should be moved urgently to hospital and given the right to be seen by an independent doctor vetted by her lawyer. We call upon General Paul KAGAME to grant permission to this end without any delay and to set his opponents free.

Early morning, when the FDU-INKINGI local team brought the breakfast they noticed contradicting behaviours from the jailers, one informing that she needed extra bread while the other one said she was still asleep. They never allowed them to see her. At 10:00, she was not taken to the RUSORORO Court as announced by the Prosecutor the evening before. She was taken to RUSORORO late in the afternoon, in handcuffs despite her state and hidden from the supporters. No interrogation, no bail hearing. She was later taken back to the police cell. Another troubling incident is the fact that some Military Intelligence agents pretending to work for the International Committee of the Red Cross have been many times seen around. The incident was reported to the ICRC for investigation.

Ms. INGABIRE is persecuted and prosecuted on politically motivated charges. She and the FDU-INKINGI have chosen democracy and non violence. The regime is using the FDLR or any non-existent rebel or terrorist groups for any purpose. The pursuit of FDLR in the DR CONGO was used to justify the invasion of the DRC and the subsequent crimes against humanity, war crimes and a �possible genocide � according to the UN mapping report and minerals plundering. The same pretext allowed the regime to cause mayhem in the DRC and now it is used to thwart the opposition.

Linking FDU-INKINGI or any of its leaders to FDLR and so called CDF rebel groups has no other purpose but to keep on claiming the status of victim, after the devastating UN report which accused the regime of horrendous crimes against refugees in the DRC.

Ms. Victoire INGABIRE does not believe in violence and war, that is the reason why she has made non violence, her motto. That’s the reason why she sacrificed herself for democracy, justice and the dignity of all Rwandans.

It is time for the international backers and lobbies of General Paul KAGAME to remind him to abide by UN minimum standards on the treatment of prisoners and also stress the fact that inflicting emotional or physical pain on suspects or inmates is criminal.

Brussels, 19th October 2010

For the FDU INKINGI Support Committee
Eugene Ndahayo,
President.