39 "Enemies of press freedom" worldwide

Most of the "enemies of press freedom" listed have been on the list for some time, but five have been added this year. In one case, an incumbent has simply replaced his predecessor, according to the press release: The new Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken the place of former President Hu Jintao on the list. This is because the Chinese system's repressive approach to freedom of information has not changed.

In addition to Xi Jinping, the Syrian rebel group Jabhat Al-Nosra is also new to the list - this means that an armed group from the opposition is listed alongside President Bashar al-Assad. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is also new to the list, as representatives of the organization do not want to allow any information spring and certainly no critical information after the "Arab Spring" and are striving to fill important media positions with "loyalists".

Also new on the list are armed groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and Musallah Defa, which are active in Pakistan's Balochistan region and have made it one of the world's most dangerous regions for media professionals. The Pakistani intelligence and secret services have long been on the list of "enemies of press freedom". Finally, extremist religious groups in the Maldives are aggressively targeting and intimidating media professionals and are therefore new to the list.

Most of the politicians, groups, militias and extremists already on the 2012 ROG list have not improved their treatment of freedom of information and media professionals. These include Kim Jong-un in North Korea, Issaias Afeworki in Eritrea and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in Turkmenistan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and the Israeli army. The list also includes criminal organizations and paramilitary groups, often linked to the drug trade - the "Zetas" in Mexico, for example, the "Urabeños" in Colombia and mafia-like organizations in Italy - who take action against investigative media professionals and the media when they deal with them and their business.

Four former "members" are no longer on the list. The former Somali Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed, is no longer a minister, and his successor appears to be more reserved towards media professionals. Also removed from the list is Burmese President Thein Sein, under whose presidency the military junta was dissolved, all imprisoned journalists and bloggers were released and pre-censorship was abolished.

The list also no longer includes the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and those of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, as the number of their violations of press freedom has decreased over the past four years - although the freedom of information situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip remains a cause for concern. Finally, Eta was removed from the list as there have been no more attacks on journalists or media since 2011. Some journalists in the Basque Country still have to work under police protection, so ROG will pay close attention to how Eta now behaves towards freedom of information and will not forget the Eta victims among media professionals.

New this year is the form in which ROG presents the "enemies": they introduce themselves in ironic self-portraits or are called to account for their crimes against press freedom in the form of fictitious accusations.

The list can be viewed at this link can be downloaded as a PDF file.