The worst enemies of press freedom include Putin and Castro

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban Leader Fidel Castro are included in the list of 37 worst enemies of freedom of the press compiled by the organization “Reporters without borders”. In their annual report aimed to coincide with Press Freedom Day on 3 May, the organization also names the President of Tunisia Bena Ali, the King of Nepal Guanendra, and the Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, as well as Islamic groups in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2005 was the “deadliest” year for journalist over the last decade with 63 journalists killed, most of them in Iraq. According to “Reporters without borders”, in the countries of the EU and North America  there has been a move towards more restrictions on press freedom with this largely manifesting itself in attempts to force journalists to disclose their sources of information and in searches carried out of editorial offices. The organization believes that press freedom needs to be defended in such countries as Germany, France and the USA.  Internet publications are subjected to serious censorship in China, Iran, Cuba, Tunisia and Vietnam. Furthermore the American companies Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are helping the regimes in those countries to exercise censorship.