On the brink
By Global Journalist Staff Posted Dec 2 2008
The work of no two journalists is quite the same, but one universal holds constant: media workers in both the developed and developing worlds must confront new challenges to the gathering, production and dissemination of news on a daily basis. Systems are overthrown and other systems arise to replace them. Rules change, then change back. The lines in the sand are ever shifting, and the journalists who step over them often risk censure, censorship and even death.
The year 2008 came on the heels of a seven-year downturn in press freedom conditions worldwide, according to a 2007 Freedom House report. Although many of the events of the past 12 months suggest the old hostilities and impunities are still at play, there are also signs of hope: fallen journalists publicly honored, governmental controls railed against, solidarity voiced with the accused and the detained.
Here, 21 snapshots from the struggle for press freedom in 2008.