War Cemetery, State Of Eritrea, Africa

Independent local sources of political information on Eritrean domestic politics are scarce; in September 2001 the government closed down all of the nation's privately owned print media, and outspoken critics of the government have been arrested and held without trial, according to various international observers, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In 2004 the U.S. State Department declared Eritrea a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its record of religious persecution.
Media
In its 2010 Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders classified the media environment in Eritrea at 178 out of 178, the lowest possible rating, and below that of totalitarian North Korea at 177. According to the BBC, "Eritrea is the only African country to have no privately-owned news media", and Reporters Without Borders said of the public media, "they do nothing but relay the regime's belligerent and ultra-nationalist discourse. ... Not a single foreign correspondent now lives in Asmara."