‘West Bank unsafe for journalists’

The West Bank was named the world’s worst place for a journalist to be in by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a list marki...

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The West Bank was named the world’s worst place for a journalist to be in by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a list marking World Press Freedom Day on Friday.

The CPJ, which issues the annual ranking of places where dangers and restrictions represent the worst threats to press freedom, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government for using extraordinary force to keep journalists from covering its recent military incursion.

Following the West Bank on the list was Colombia, where the CPJ said violent reprisals against the press by all factions in the civil conflict have made it the most deadly beat in the Western Hemisphere.

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Next was Afghanistan, were eight journalists were killed in late 2001. Eritrea, Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Cuba completed CPJ’s list of worst places to be a journalist.

Thirty-seven journalists were killed in 2001 because of their work, said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper, underlining the dangers by noting that Pakistan, where Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year, did not even make the list. ‘‘There are a lot of press freedom crises in the world now,’’ said Cooper. and added: ‘‘In these countries where press freedom is under attack, journalists endure violent assaults, crackdowns by authoritarian regimes, danger from military operations and financial reprisals designed to bankrupt independent voices.’’