
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995                   TAG: 9505040100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PAST 15 MONTHS BAND FOR PRESS FREEDOM

In Indonesia, two reporters were threatened with imprisonment for ``insulting the government.'' In Argentina, President Carlos Menem sought laws inhibiting investigative journalism. In Venezuela, journalists critical of President Rafael Caldera's emergency measures had their homes searched and their reputations sullied.

And, around the world, 143 journalists were killed, more than half of them in three countries, Rwanda, Algeria and Russia.

The past 15 months were not a banner time for press freedom, Freedom House, a civil liberties watchdog, said Wednesday in the latest findings of a survey it has conducted since 1979.

``Setbacks to press freedom in many countries, a mounting death toll of journalists, as well as a troubling antagonism toward the press by West European government bureaucrats, bode ill for the media in the years ahead,'' said Adrian Karatnycky, president of the New York-based nonpartisan organization, which has monitored political rights for 50 years.

- Associated Press

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB