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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Central and Eastern Europe take biggest loss in press freedom - freedom house
Countries marked as green are classified as Free by Freedom House. Yellow means Partly Free and grey is Not Free.
Photo: Freedom House
Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor at the presentation of the Freedom of the Press 2009 Survey in the Newseum in Washington DC.
Photo: Freedom House
The map world, showing countries marked as Free, Partly Free and Not Free at the Newseum in Washington DC.
Photo: Freedom House
Press freedom lost in every region of the world in 2008, is the alarming conclusion of Freedom House's annual media study.
For the seventh straight year global press freedom declined. The decline was this year not limited to traditionally authoritarian states. Israel, Italy and Hong Kong slipped from the study's Free category to a Partly Free status.
Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor was quoted in a media statement as saying that "the journalism profession today was up against the ropes and fighting to stay alive, as pressures from governments, other powerful actors and the global economic crisis took an enormous toll."
"The press is democracy's first defense and its vulnerability has enormous implications for democracy if journalists are not able to carry out their traditional watchdog role," Windsor said at the presentation of the report.
The region with the biggest drop in press freedom of any region in the world was Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, with journalists murdered in Bulgaria and Croatia and assaulted in Bosnia, Freedom House said.
Russia's judiciary was unwilling to protect journalists from attacks and the country's regulators frequently targeted independent media, according to Freedom House.
While Western Europe still boasted the world's highest level of press freedom, Italy slipped back as it saw free speech limited by courts and libel laws, increased intimidation of journalists by organised crime and far-right groups and concerns over the concentration of media ownership, Freedom House said.
Greece also suffered a significant decline, the report said.
In total, 70 countries were listed as Free. Bulgaria only made it to the 76th place, after Benin, Israel, Italy, Tonga and Hong Kong, all of which were listed as Partly Free.
Within South Eastern Europe, Bulgaria was the top-ranking country that did not list as Free. It had to let eight countries listed as Free ahead of it. Ten countries in the region were listed as Partly Free, with the remaining 10 as Not Free.
For the seventh straight year global press freedom declined. The decline was this year not limited to traditionally authoritarian states. Israel, Italy and Hong Kong slipped from the study's Free category to a Partly Free status.
Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor was quoted in a media statement as saying that "the journalism profession today was up against the ropes and fighting to stay alive, as pressures from governments, other powerful actors and the global economic crisis took an enormous toll."
"The press is democracy's first defense and its vulnerability has enormous implications for democracy if journalists are not able to carry out their traditional watchdog role," Windsor said at the presentation of the report.
The region with the biggest drop in press freedom of any region in the world was Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, with journalists murdered in Bulgaria and Croatia and assaulted in Bosnia, Freedom House said.
Russia's judiciary was unwilling to protect journalists from attacks and the country's regulators frequently targeted independent media, according to Freedom House.
While Western Europe still boasted the world's highest level of press freedom, Italy slipped back as it saw free speech limited by courts and libel laws, increased intimidation of journalists by organised crime and far-right groups and concerns over the concentration of media ownership, Freedom House said.
Greece also suffered a significant decline, the report said.
In total, 70 countries were listed as Free. Bulgaria only made it to the 76th place, after Benin, Israel, Italy, Tonga and Hong Kong, all of which were listed as Partly Free.
Within South Eastern Europe, Bulgaria was the top-ranking country that did not list as Free. It had to let eight countries listed as Free ahead of it. Ten countries in the region were listed as Partly Free, with the remaining 10 as Not Free.
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Oh yeah, the "developed" and "rich" countries are all free and the "poor" basket cases are not. What a bunch of bull! I would argue that the Western media is one of the least free and most censored. More anti east-european and Russian propaganda.
and the actual table can be found there as well;
http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop/2009/Freed
@john & stanley; if you read the pressrelease on freedomhouse's website, you're both wrong and the article's right;
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&a
whether or not you agree or feel the conclusion is justified, you could at least do your homework ;)
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained
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i totally disagree with this article.
This article provides inaccurate information. The statement "Israel, Italy and Hong Kong slipped from the study's Free category to a Partly Free status" and "Bulgaria only made it to the 76th place, after Benin, Israel, Italy, Tonga and Hong Kong, all of which were listed as Partly Free" appears to be false. According to Freedom House's own website, http://www.freedomhouse.org, Benin, Bulgaria, Israel and Italy are all listed as "free". Hong Kong and Tonga are indeed listed as "partly free".