On World Press Freedom Day, CHRIS TITLEY examines the importance of a free press

THE North Yorkshire journalist faces certain hazards. A justifiably irate phone call from the man whose name you spelled wrongly. A volley of abuse from the 'neighbour from hell' you are investigating. Perhaps even a thinly-veiled threat from the friend of a defendant whose court case you are covering.

But that's about it. We have got it easy in York. Our right to freedom of expression is not in question. We are far from the nearest war zone; we will never be hauled from our beds and incarcerated because the authorities do not like what we have written.

Today is about the many journalists who are not so fortunate. Fifty-two were murdered in 26 countries in 2000. Seventy-three are being held in prison. More than 200 publications were censored last year alone.

World Press Freedom Day is ten years old. Since it was first launched in Namibia in 1991, there have been encouraging developments.

In an article to mark the anniversary, Timothy Balding, director general of the World Association of Newspapers writes: "The dismantling of the former Soviet bloc and the creation of many new democracies in the early 1990s provided momentum and significant potential for a free press world-wide. "Freedom House, an American human rights monitoring institute, estimates that countries with a press at least 'partly free' have increased by two-thirds in the last decade."

Among the countries to have benefited from this "strong and diverse counterbalance to authority and its abuse" were the Czech Republic, Hungary, Indonesia and Nigeria.

"But the 1990s have also proved, if indeed it still needed to be proved, that the 'formal' introduction of democracy provides no guarantees at all for the development of a strong and truly free press, which is a much more laborious and complex process than many imagined," he adds.

"In many parts of the former Soviet bloc, including Russia itself, the five Central Asian Republics, the Ukraine, Belarus, or Azerbaijan, the free press is today still struggling for its survival against overt and covert attempts to control it." Mr Balding recognises that the Internet has advanced press freedom enormously in the last few years. "An information flow, however policed and controlled, has been created in countries like Burma, China, Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Vietnam, where the press is totally muzzled, and one can only hope that free information providers will get better and better at outwitting the security authorities."

That development will come too late for the 52 journalists murdered last year.

Among them are: Juan Camilo Restrepo Guerra. One of ten Colombian journalists killed in 2000, he was a 26-year-old radio station director shot dead after his criticism of the local administration.

Brajamani Singh, 69. One of the pioneers of English journalism in the north-east of India, Singh was shot dead by two assailants on a motorbike.

Jos Luis Lpez de la Calle. A regular contributor to the Basque edition of a Madrid daily newspaper, he was an outspoken critic of Basque terrorist group ETA. He was murdered outside his home. James Edwin Richards, 55. The editor of online newspaper Neighborhood News was shot dead while walking near his home in Los Angeles, USA. Colleagues believe he may have been killed for his investigations into local crime. They paid the ultimate price for their commitment to a free press, a cause whose importance is recognised by most world leaders.

To mark the tenth anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, presidents and prime ministers were asked: "What does press freedom mean to you?"

Tony Blair replied: "A free press will sometimes make uncomfortable reading for any politician. But any passing embarrassment or justified indignation must never blind us to its vital role in the health and protection of democracy.

"Those who wish to destroy democracy and its freedoms know this well. It is why their first act is often to try to muzzle the media. It is also why we must all be vigilant in safeguarding the freedom of the press at home and abroad."

Updated: 10:31 Thursday, May 03, 2001