News group hits out at US censorship calls
The World Association of Newspapers has accused western democracies of undermining freedom of expression by urging the media not to report the views of their enemies.
Speaking at the association’s annual conference in Belgium, WAN president Roger Parkinson said: "The repressors of the free press have found all the inspiration and justification that they needed, even in developed democracies like the United States and Britain."
He referred specifically to US and British appeals for the media not to publicise statements made by Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida network believed to be responsible for the attacks on the US last year.
Mr Parkinson said the US Government once praised the Qatar-based television station al-Jazeera as "a model of free expression in the Arab world", but did a brisk turnaround after September 11 by urging the station not to air bin Laden’s communiques.
He said al-Jazeera "had to be muzzled as soon as it did not confine itself to relaying the American line."
The Paris-based WAN represents 18,000 newspapers worldwide and its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and worldwide press groups.
