WHO CARES ABOUT A FREE PRESS?

UNESCO has proclaimed may 3 World Press Freedom Day. In the American consciousness this is not likely to rank with Mother's Day, Secretaries' Day, Pharmacists' Day, or even Kiss-Your-Mate Day, but it deserves some attention at a time when America is more dissatisfied than ever with its own media.

The exercise brings to mind a 17th century English pamphleteer named John Twyn, who published a defense of revolution. Condemned for treason, he was hanged, cut down while still alive, emasculated, disemboweled, quartered and, presumably to make absolutely sure, beheaded. A great many Americans today feel that this is just about the treatment appropriate to our journalists. Elsewhere in the world, they are in fact treated almost that way. In 1994, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 58 members of the press were assassinated and 173 were in prison in 23 countries at the end of the year.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, democracy seemed to be on the march everywhere, together with an independent press. Much of that promise came true, but lately it has receded again. The Russian press, for example, forcefully criticizes the government in ways undreamed of a few years ago. Russian television has made Chechyna a living-room war. As a result there has been a vehement backlash. All camps-bureaucrats, politicians, the military, entrepreneurs and criminals-seem to have declared open season on the press. Within the past seven months an investigative reporter and a prominent TV personality were assassinated. Reformers believe that the press is the last hope for democracy in Russia.

The situation is similar in some of the old Soviet republics and satellites. Both former communists and former dissidents are fighting daily to maintain or reimpose state control of the media. In Tajikistan, beset by civil war, the government suppressed all independent media. In Armenia police habitually raid editorial offices. In Romania journalists are often under surveillance. In Slovakia a proposed law would provide one- to five-year jail sentences for journalists who "demean" the country from abroad. In Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary the situation is better, but everywhere governments exert pressure by controlling paper supplies, distribution facilities and especially broadcast licenses.

The battle is not confined to former communist areas. In Turkey, a nato member, more than 70 journalists were in jail at the end of last year. Despite much progress in Latin America, licensing of journalists and other controls are widespread. Argentina recently threatened to pass a law providing up to 10 years of prison for "dishonoring the name of a politician."