[extropy-chat] Reporters without Borders: Freedom Index 2003

[Amara Graps]

A updated index is out..


Reporters without Borders: Freedom Index 2003
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=8247

It is useful to compare with :

Reporters without Borders: Freedom Index 2002
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4118

The press for the Baltic and Central European countries are rapidly
becoming more free. (Note Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic). Finland,
Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands are still at the top.

Italy's index keeps going down. [... gee, what a surprise. maybe,
just maybeeeeeeeee, Berlusconi's continual new media laws protecting
his vast media enterprise, and maybe, just maybeeeeeeee, Berlusconi
suing The Economist a second time,  has something to do with this low
index ....]

The US has dropped a whopping 17 points from last year too (now at
number 31).

Amara

=====================================================================
 From Kuro5hin.

But hey, look at the bright side:  GDP growth is hot!  ;-)  <As
Siouxsee and the Banshees' Spin Spin Sugar plays in the
background...>

--

US falls 14 spots in press freedom ranking (MLP)

By jjayson
Thu Oct 30th, 2003 at 12:50:31 PM EST
Freedom

Reporters Without Borders recently released its second world press
freedom ranking. [1] With North Korea and Cuba forming the bottom
two rungs and Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway all tied
in the lead, the European countries did considerably better than the
rest of the world, especially the Arab world. While the US, despite
no major domestic changes affecting reporters in the last year, fell
to a 31st place tie with Greece, down from 17th.

The ranking was compiled by asking "journalists, researchers,
jurists and human rights activists to fill out a questionnaire
evaluating respect for press freedom in a particular country" from
September 1, 2002, to September 1, 2003. The study "does not look at
human rights violations in general, just press freedom violations"
and is not a ranking of the quality of the press, just its freedom.



The Arab world was the largest concern. In 2002, 56th ranked Lebanon
was top of all Arab countries in press freedom, but fell to 106th,
and Kuwait, even though dropping from 78th to 102nd, took over the
lead. Israel was placed at 44th, the highest of any Middle East
country.

However, this year, the US and Israel were give two separate
rankings, at home and abroad where Iraq and the Occupied Territories
are also examined. The Occupied Territories under Israel and Iraq
under American control ranked 146th and 135th respectively, far
lower than both the Palestinian Authority, 130th, and Saddam's Iraq,
124th. The report cited the death of reporters during the war and
Israeli abuses as the reasons for such low placement:

The Israeli army's repeated abuses against journalists in the
occupied territories and the US army's responsibility in the death
of several reporters during the war in Iraq constitute unacceptable
behaviour by two nations that never stop stressing their commitment
to freedom of expression.

The 2002 report gave slightly more information on both the US and
Israel:

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.

Š

The attitude of Israel (92nd) towards press freedom is ambivalent.
Despite strong pressure on state-owned TV and radio, the government
respects the local media's freedom of expression. However, in the
West Bank and Gaza, Reporters Without Borders has recorded a large
number of violations of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights which guarantees press freedom and which Israel has
signed. Since the start of the Israeli army's incursions into
Palestinian towns and cities in March 2002, very many journalists
have been roughed up, threatened, arrested, banned from moving
around, targeted by gunfire, wounded or injured, had their press
cards withdrawn or been deported.

Europe was consistently ranked in the top fifth. The only two
countries falling out of that bracket, and the only two European
countries placing below the US, were Spain at 42nd and Italy at
53rd.

Full discussion: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/10/29/172532/53

--

-- 

********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
********************************************************************
"In my opinion, television validates existence." --Calvin