Friday, January 31, 2003

Reporters Without Borders publishes the first worldwide press freedom index ... The index was drawn up by asking journalists, researchers and legal experts to answer 50 questions about the whole range of press freedom violations (such as murders or arrests of journalists, censorship, pressure, state monopolies in various fields, punishment of press law offences and regulation of the media). The final list includes 139 countries. The others were not included in the absence of reliable information.(...) The poor ranking of the United States (17th) is mainly because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned there. Arrests are often because they refuse to reveal their sources in court. Also, since the 11 September attacks, several journalists have been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings.(...)
And here's the 2002 Index:
1 Finland 2 Iceland 3 Norway 4 Netherlands 5 Canada 6 Ireland 7 Germany 8 Portugal 9 Sweden 10 Denmark 11 France 12 Australia 13 Belgium 14 Slovenia 15 Costa Rica 16 Switzerland 17 United States

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