Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliev on the Predators of Press Freedom List

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has issues the list of Predators of Press Freedom, including 40 politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organisations that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists.

“Many of them were already on last year’s list. In Latin America, there is no change in the four major sources of threats and violence against journalists: drug traffickers, the Cuban dictatorship, FARC and paramilitary groups. Africa has also seen few changes. But power relationships have been evolving in the Middle East and Asia,” said in the statement.

Included in the list are Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, Yemeni President Ali Abdulah Saleh as well as Kim Jong-il and Muammar Gaddafi; 17 presidents and several heads of government are on the list, including China's Hu Jintao, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Cuba's Raul Castro, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev.