海角大神

Colombia and the European Union are appealing for the release of French journalist Romeo Langlois, who was apparently kidnapped by FARC rebels in Colombia over the weekend while embedded with the Colombian military.

The troops, who were dispatched to eradicate cocaine fields, came under attack on April 28. Mr. Langlois, who was filming a documentary on drug trafficking, took off his bullet proof vest and helmet, according to press accounts, and identified himself as a civilian. He went missing after the skirmish, however, and a woman claiming to be a member of FARC said he is being held as a 鈥減risoner of war.鈥�

Colombia's environment for journalists has improved greatly in the past decade. The country has cracked down on guerrilla violence and dramatically reduced kidnappings, including those of journalists. But as the world marks World Press Freedom day today, the overall decline in press freedom in the rest of Latin America is evident, according to the 2012 Freedom House survey on the world's press freedom rankings.

In fact, Summer Harlow at the Knight Center, who helped produce the 2012 Freedom House survey for the Americas, writes, 鈥淲hile the rest of the world saw no real decline in press freedom 鈥� and even improved in the Arab world 鈥� in the Americas, press freedom deteriorated in 2011.鈥�

The survey ranks countries as "free," "partly free," and "not free." Overall the region is considered relatively free, with 39 percent of residents living in 鈥渇ree鈥� countries and 44 percent in 鈥減artly free鈥� nations.

But two countries, Chile and Guyana, saw declines in their ranking for 2011, downgraded to 鈥減artly free.鈥� Ecuador has seen a big slide in the past years under President Rafael Correa, who has sued journalists and media outlets and drawn rebuke from around the globe. In one high-profile case that we wrote about here, Carlos Lauria, Americas director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told The Monitor: 鈥淪ince Correa took office five years ago, the situation has seriously deteriorated in Ecuador.鈥�

Venezuela and Cuba remained at the bottom half of the list (and in the case of Cuba at rock bottom, as it is considered one of the 鈥渆ight worst鈥� in the world, along with Belarus, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).聽

And these two countries, along with Mexico and Honduras, remained the only four in the Americas that are 鈥渘ot free鈥� 鈥� the latter two due to the murders of journalists and the impunity surrounding their cases.

The report sums up聽the Americas: 鈥淐hile鈥檚 decline to Partly Free and major setbacks in Ecuador are the latest in a series of negative developments in Latin America over the past decade. Whether due to violence by criminal groups, as in Mexico and Honduras, or government hostility to media criticism, as in Venezuela, Argentina, and Bolivia, media freedom is under threat in much of the region.鈥�

The US is considered one of the world's freer presses, but it saw a slight dip in 2011 over harassment surrounding the Occupy movement. And good news comes from the Middle East. The report opens with these words: 鈥淭he year 2011 featured precarious but potentially far-reaching gains for media freedom in the Middle East and North Africa. Major steps forward were recorded in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, where longtime dictators were removed after successful popular uprisings.鈥�

In terms of security, Mexico continues to be one of the world's most dangerous locations for working journalists. Just a week ago, Mexican reporter Regina Martinez Perez was found beaten, strangled, and left for dead in her home in Veracruz, which saw a huge spike in drug-fueled violence in 2011, as we reported here.

Freedom House says she is one of 76 journalists killed in Mexico since 2000.

This is the kind of environment that Colombian journalists once faced. But as security has improved, journalists have been increasingly shielded. And the FARC, in a landmark move in February, said it would stop kidnappings of civilians for ransom.

Now the world is wondering whether the apparent abduction of Ms. Langlois is a backtrack from that pledge.

One blogger, Hannah Stone at聽Insight Crime, says that it is not a reversal, as so far the group has not asked for ransom, but that the situation could mean that peace talks with Colombia's government might now be further out of reach:

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