The February murder of Guardian editor Tunde Oladepo, in front of his wife and children, and the April life sentence meted out to Diet editor Niran Malaolu were warnings to journalists not to criticize Abacha's stage-managed referendum to secure his succession unopposed. Burma's Senior General Than Shwe Than Shwe presides over the cosmetically renamed State Peace and Development Council, but a junta is still a junta, and this stifling regime has changed little since the military seized power in 1988. Burma is a nightmare for free expression. Fax machines, photocopies, and computer modems are illegal. There are no independent newspapers.
Foreign broadcasts are frequently jammed.
In this climate of oppression, the Burmese people are kept in the dark about even the nature of their own government. Ignoring international protests of repeated press freedom violations, Lukashenko wages an ongoing, Soviet-style campaign against independent and foreign media in Belarus. Despite implicit promises to Pope John Paul II that there would be greater room for freedom of expression, Castro continues his control over all media outlets and his harsh treatment of independent journalists, who are routinely detained, arrested and beaten, or forced into exile, especially before major political events. In a new effort to staunch the flow of information from the island, Castro created a special task force within the State Security Agency to muzzle the independent press. Journalists try to file stories by phone with colleagues abroad in order to communicate with the outside world, but the Castro regime routinely monitors journalists' calls and interrupts telephone service.