Switzerland ranks 8th in annual press freedom index
Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan continue to be the countries with the worst press freedom situation in the view of the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders. Finland and Norway are at the top of the list. Switzerland is also far ahead.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) published its annual list on press freedom on Wednesday. Syria, Iran and China are also at the bottom of the list of 179 countries. These three countries appear to have "lost touch with reality" and have fallen into a "spiral of terror", according to Reporters Without Borders. According to the information, significantly more media people were arrested, kidnapped or beaten in many countries in 2011 than in previous years. One focus of the violence was street fighting in the Arab countries. Bloggers and citizen journalists were also increasingly targeted by the authorities there.
According to Reporters Without Borders, the uprisings in the Arab world had very different effects on press freedom in North Africa and the Middle East. Tunisia, for example, where the dictator Ben Ali was overthrown, improved by 30 places to 134th place, while Bahrain, where mass protests were suppressed and many arrests were made, was downgraded to 173rd place - just one position ahead of China.
The Nordic countries of Finland and Norway top the press freedom rankings, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland and Luxembourg. Switzerland is in 8th place.
USA far behind due to Occupy movement
Germany shares 16th place with Cyprus and Jamaica. "The main difficulties here are access to information from the authorities and the protection of sources and whistleblowers," it says about the working conditions of the press in Germany. With Cape Verde (9th place) and Namibia (20th place), two African countries made it into the top 20 of the list for the first time last year. Not all EU countries are in the top ranks. Italy came in 61st place, Greece 70th and Bulgaria 80th, while the USA came in 47th place, dropping 27 positions. The organization cited police obstruction of reporting on the Occupy movement as the reason. Within two months, more than 25 cases had come to light in which journalists had been arrested and beaten
Reporters Without Borders compared the situation of the media worldwide in the period between December 2010 and November 2011. The organization has compiled an annual ranking of press freedom since 2002. Switzerland has always been at the top of the list. (SDA/AFP/DPA)
