organization, but as it makes clear in all of its publications: "Amnesty International is a worldwide movement independent of any government, political persuasion, or religious creed. It plays a specific role in international protection of human rights" (Amnesty Report 2000 1).
While it is obvious that most headlines in the international press concern "prisoners of conscience"- whether in Cuba, in Serbia and Croatia, Argentina, Chile, Haiti, El Salvador, among others, AI is also vitally concerned with a free press. This means fighting against government suppression of news. It is because of the fear of publicity "that governments launch a second form of attack: against the flow of information. Rather than improving their human rights record, governments close the channels of information about the violations" (AI 2000 4).
Amnesty International is also involved in fighting the death penalty in many nations around the world, including the United States. In fact, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are among the leading
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