Seventeen presidents and heads of government made the list of “predators of press freedom” by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Included in the list of 40 are China’s Hu Jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Cuba’s Raul Castro, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and Burma’s Than Shwe. Also included are Somalia’s Islamist militia, private militia in the Philippines and Latin American paramilitary groups. According to an RSF tally, nine journalists have been killed in 2010 and 300 media professionals are in prison.
