Press Freedom Grows in Developing World, Falls in Some Western Societies
October 27, 2006

The fifth annual “Worldwide Press Freedom Index” by the group Reporters Without Borders indicates that while press freedom has fallen in recent years in the United States, France, and Japan, it has been on the rise in other areas such as the Arab Peninsula where all but Yemen and Saudi Arabia “considerably improved their rank.”  Other newcomers to the top ranks included Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Ghana.  Northern European countries Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands topped the list in a first place tie, and North Korea is listed as the worst country for press freedom in the world.  Other countries that remained at the bottom include Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Cuba, Burma, and China. 

Reporters Without Borders noted “its concern over the declining rankings of some western democracies” such as France (35) and the United States (53).  In the first publication of the study the United States was ranked 17th.  The ranking drop is attributed to “the zeal of federal courts” that has resulted in the imprisonment of journalists for not revealing their sources according to a Washington Post story.  The report also blames tensions between the Bush administration’s invocations of national security “to regard as suspicious any journalist who questions his ‘war on terror’” for the steep fall in recent years.  The “increase in searches of media offices and journalists’ homes” was the primary concern with the French press.

The “Worldwide Press Freedom Index” also cites war and the fallout from the “Mohammed cartoons” as causal variables in the falling rankings of Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Denmark, and Yemen.  The Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the reinitiating of war in Sri Lanka have proved detrimental to press freedom.  In Denmark journalists had to be protected by police “due to threat against them because of their work,” and in Yemen journalists were arrested and publications shut down that “reprinted the cartoon.”   

For the complete report and press freedom rankings, see The Worldwide Press Freedom Index.

Additional Sources:
Washington Post: U.S. Rank on Press Freedom Slides Lower