The Media Freedom list from Reporters without Borders  
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

 

Reporters without Borders has published their annual Press Freedom list of countries with and without media freedom (and degrees in between).

The top 10 countries that are most supportive in freedom of reporting, where journalists have the most liberty and exposure: Iceland Norway Estonia Slovakia Belgium Finland Sweden Denmark Ireland Portugal

The worst offenders, in the bottom 10: Uzbekistan Laos Vietnam China Burma Cuba Iran Turkmenistan North Korea Eritrea

Not surprisingly, the U.S. did not make the top 10.  Nor the top 20.  The United States of America came in at #48.  Canada was ranked #18."There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison," stated Reporters Without Borders on its website. "But the detention of Al-Jazeera's Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.

"We are particularly disturbed by the situation in Burma (164th).  The military junta's crackdown on demonstrations bodes ill for the future of basic freedoms in this country."

"Eritrea deserves to be at the bottom," the group said in a statement. "The privately owned press has been banished by the authoritarian President Issaias Afeworki and the few journalists who dare to criticize the regime are sent off to prison camps.''

Four journalists that were imprisoned in Eritrea, a smal African nation, have died in detention.

You can read more about Reporters Without Borders, and their report, here.

   

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