Press Freedom Index 2011/2012

PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2011/2012

en.rsf.org

“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world,” Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index. “Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

“Crackdo

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UK = 28th -- 2.00
US = 47th -- 14.00

In order to have a bigger spread in the scores and increase the differentiation between countries, this year’s questionnaire had more answers assigning negative points. That is why countries at the top of the index have negative scores this year. Although the point system has produced a broader distribution of scores than in 2010, each country’s evolution over the years can still be plotted by comparing its position in the index rather than its score. This is what the arrows in the table refer to – a country’s change in position in the index compared with the preceding year.

Several European countries fall far behind rest of continent

The index has highlighted the divergence of some European countries from the rest of the continent. The crackdown on protests after President Lukashenko’s reelection caused Belarus to fall 14 places to 168th. At a time when it is portraying itself as a regional model, Turkey (148th) took a big step backwards and lost 10 places. Far from carrying out promised reforms, the judicial system launched a wave of arrests of journalists that was without precedent since the military dictatorship.

Within the European Union, the index reflects a continuation of the very marked distinction between countries such as Finland and Netherlands that have always had a good evaluation and countries such as Bulgaria (80th), Greece (70th) and Italy (61st) that fail to address the issue of their media freedom violations, above all because of a lack of political will. There was little progress from France, which went from 44th to 38th, or from Spain (39th) and Romania (47th). Media freedom is a challenge that needs addressing more than ever in the Balkans, which want to join the European Union but are suffering the negative effects of the economic crisis.

USA and Romania joint 47th oh and Argentina too. South Africa above them, El Salvador too.

As for the UK; Costa Rica and Namibia are ahead of us.

This is very revealing and entirely fits in with what we see reported on ATS, there is no freedom of media anymore in the US or UK.

en.rsf.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Rank Country Score
1 Finland -10,00
- Norway -10,00
3 Estonia -9,00
- Netherlands -9,00
5 Austria -8,00
6 Iceland -7,00
- Luxembourg -7,00
8 Switzerland -6,20
9 Cape Verde -6,00
10 Canada -5,67
- Denmark -5,67
12 Sweden -5,50
13 New Zealand -5,33
14 Czech Republic -5,00
15 Ireland -4,00
16 Cyprus -3,00
- Jamaica -3,00
- Germany -3,00
19 Costa Rica -2,25
20 Belgium -2,00
- Namibia -2,00
22 Japan -1,00
- Surinam -1,00
24 Poland -0,67
25 Mali 0,00
- OECS 0,00
- Slovakia 0,00
28 United Kingdom 2,00
29 Niger 2,50
30 Australia 4,00
- Lithuania 4,00
32 Uruguay 4,25
33 Portugal 5,33
34 Tanzania 6,00
35 Papua New Guinea 9,00
36 Slovenia 9,14
37 El Salvador 9,30
38 France 9,50
39 Spain 9,75
40 Hungary 10,00
41 Ghana 11,00
42 South Africa 12,00
- Botswana 12,00
44 South Korea 12,67
45 Comoros 13,00
- Taiwan 13,00
47 United States of America 14,00
- Argentina 14,00
- Romania 14,00
50 Latvia 15,00
- Trinidad and Tobago 15,00
52 Haiti 15,67
53 Moldova 16,00
54 Hong-Kong 17,00
- Mauritius 17,00
- Samoa 17,00
57 United States of America (extra-territorial) 19,00
58 Malta 19,50
- Bosnia and Herzegovina 19,50
- Guyana 19,50
61 Italy 19,67
62 Central African Republic 20,00
63 Lesotho 21,00
- Sierra Leone 21,00
- Tonga 21,00
66 Mozambique 21,50
67 Mauritania 22,20
68 Croatia 23,33
- Burkina Faso 23,33
70 Bhutan 24,00
- Greece 24,00
72 Nicaragua 24,33
73 Maldives 25,00
- Seychelles 25,00
75 Guinea-Bissau 26,00
- Senegal 26,00
77 Armenia 27,00
78 Kuwait 28,00
79 Togo 28,50
80 Serbia 29,00
- Bulgaria 29,00
- Chile 29,00
- Paraguay 29,00
84 Kenya 29,50
- Madagascar 29,50
86 Guinea 30,00
- Kosovo 30,00
- Timor-Leste 30,00
- Zambia 30,00
90 Congo 30,38
91 Benin 31,00
92 Israel (Israeli territory) 31,25
93 Lebanon 31,50
94 Macedonia 31,67
95 Dominican Republic 33,25
96 Albania 34,44
97 Cameroon 35,00
- Guatemala 35,00
99 Brazil 35,33
100 Mongolia 35,75
101 Gabon 36,50
102 Cyprus (North) 37,00
103 Chad 37,67
104 Ecuador 38,00
- Georgia 38,00
106 Nepal 38,75
107 Montenegro 39,00
108 Bolivia 40,00
- Kyrgyzstan 40,00
110 Liberia 40,50
111 South Sudan 41,25 nc
112 United Arab Emirates 45,00
113 Panama 45,67
114 Qatar 46,00
115 Peru 51,25
116 Ukraine 54,00
117 Cambodia 55,00
- Fiji 55,00
- Oman 55,00
- Venezuela 55,00
- Zimbabwe 55,00
122 Algeria 56,00
- Tajikistan 56,00
- Malaysia 56,00
125 Brunei 56,20
126 Nigeria 56,40
127 Ethiopia 56,60
128 Jordan 56,80
129 Bangladesh 57,00
130 Burundi 57,75
131 India 58,00
132 Angola 58,43
133 Israel (extra-territorial) 59,00
134 Tunisia 60,25
135 Singapore 61,00
- Honduras 61,00
137 Thailand 61,50
138 Morocco 63,29
139 Uganda 64,00
140 Philippines 64,50
141 Gambia 65,50
142 Russia 66,00
143 Colombia 66,50
144 Swaziland 67,00
145 Democratic Republic of Congo 67,67
146 Indonesia 68,00
- Malawi 68,00
148 Turkey 70,00
149 Mexico 72,67
150 Afghanistan 74,00
151 Pakistan 75,00
152 Iraq 75,36
153 Palestinian Territories 76,00
154 Kazakhstan 77,50
- Libya 77,50
156 Rwanda 81,00
157 Uzbekistan 83,00
158 Saudi Arabia 83,25
159 Côte d’Ivoire 83,50
- Djibouti 83,50
161 Equatorial Guinea 86,00
162 Azerbaijan 87,25
163 Sri Lanka 87,50
164 Somalia 88,33
165 Laos 89,00
166 Egypt 97,50
167 Cuba 98,83
168 Belarus 99,00
169 Burma 100,00
170 Sudan 100,75
171 Yemen 101,00
172 Vietnam 114,00
173 Bahrain 125,00
174 China 136,00
175 Iran 136,60
176 Syria 138,00
177 Turkmenistan 140,67
178 North Korea 141,00
179 Eritrea 142,00

reply to post by spacedonk


Given that there are a hundred or so countries under the US and UK, I wouldn't be quite so quick to say that there is no freedom of media anymore.

reply to post by octotom


yes and 46 above the USA and 27 above the UK... these two countries espouse themselves as bastions of free speech and a free media.

Interestingly, today a US article that talks about a sports related racism issue (John Terry) and compares the different stance that would be taken in the USA as opposed to the UK. It says the US is still the home of free speech, this index seems to disagree.

Considering that they publicly call for murder of media people who report stuff they dont like I'd say 47 is very generous. That alone should put them right next to N-Korea.

Russia has a better news station than US or Canada.

rt.com...

reply to post by spacedonk


Exactly, while pushing wars and killing other nations citizens in the name of freedom and democracy, sadly we all know what kind of freedom and Democracy the countries invaded and their citizens decimate are enjoying right now where US and UK had help themselves with.



The hypocrisy

There is actually a country with less press freedom than North Korea?!

Why isn't Eritrea more prominent in the media? Is it because they are not communist, and don't (possibly) have nukes?