Reporters Without Borders names press 'predators'

(May 4, 2010) Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders on Monday put Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao on its annual list of press freedom “predators.” The Paris-based group says its list is made up of “40 politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organizations that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists.” Newcomers to the annual list, released on World Press Freedom Day, include Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Taliban overlord Mullah Omar and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Meanwhile in a move to mark World Press Freedom Day, Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday ordered the release of a journalist imprisoned on terrorism charges after criticizing the government's war on Tamil rebels. Rajapaksa released Jeyaprakash Tissainayagam, an ethnic Tamil journalist convicted last year of supporting terrorism and creating communal disharmony and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Tissainayagam's conviction was based on two articles he wrote criticizing the government's military campaign against the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. U.S. president Barack Obama and Amnesty International had criticized Tissainayagam’s conviction last year.