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Forty international figures and groups have been labelled 'predators of press freedom' by international organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) .

The RSF annual list, released on World Press Freedom day (3 May), includes many of the same culprits from last year, especially in Latin America and Africa.

But, says RSF, power relationships have been 'evolving' in the Middle East and Asia.

It lists 40 politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organisations "that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists. They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law".

RSF labelled 'private militias' as a predator in the Philippines, referencing what has been called one of the worst threats to press freedom in the history of the world's press .

"It was hard not to put the Philippines' private militias top of the list after the local governor's thugs massacred around 50 people, including 30 journalists, in Maguindanao province on 23 November 2009," the organisation says.

"The ensuing convoluted judicial proceedings betray a lack of political will to try those responsible, whose political support is too important for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Impunity is prevailing yet again."

Full list of 'predators' below, and profiled on an RSF map at this link . For further explanation of who has been removed and added to this list follow this link .

Abdallah ibn Al-Saud - Saudi Arabia King

Alexander Lukashenko - Belarus

Ali Abdallah Saleh - Yemen

Ali Khamenei - Iran

Bashar Al-Assad - Syria

Choummaly Sayasone - Laos

ETA - Spain

Executive Force - Palestinian territories

FARC - Colombia

Gotabhaya Rajapakse - Sri Lanka

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov - Turkmenistan

Hu Jintao - China

Ilham Aliev - Azerbaijan

Islam Karimov - Uzbekistan

Islamist militias - Somalia

Israel Defence Forces - Israel

Issaias Afeworki - Eritrea

Kim Jong-il - North Korea

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Iran

Mswati III - Swaziland

Muammar Gaddafi - Libya

Mullah Mohammad Omar - Afghanistan

Nepalese armed groups - Nepal

Nong Duc Manh - Vietnam

Nursultan Nazarbayev - Kazakhstan

Ogbonna Onovo - Nigeria

Organised crime - Italy

Paul Kagame - Rwanda

Private militias - Philippines

Ramzan Kadyrov - Russia

Raúl Castro - Cuba

Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe

Sinaloa, Gulf and Juárez Cartel - Mexico

Teodoro Obiang Nguema - Equatorial Guinea

Than Shwe - Burma

The Palestinian Authority's security forces - Palestinian territories

Vladimir Putin - Russia

Yahya Jammeh - Gambia

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali - Tunisia President

'Black Eagles' - Colombia

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Written by
Judith Townend

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