The best and worst places to be a journalist are…
This week, Reporters Without Borders (RSF, from “reporters sans frontières”)—an international nonprofit organization working toward press freedom—released its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Iceland and Norway topped the list this year as the most “free” countries for the press, while Eritrea earned the dubious distinction of replacing North Korea as the worst country in terms ...
This week, Reporters Without Borders (RSF, from "reporters sans frontières")—an international nonprofit organization working toward press freedom—released its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Iceland and Norway topped the list this year as the most "free" countries for the press, while Eritrea earned the dubious distinction of replacing North Korea as the worst country in terms of press freedom. The United States only made it to number 48 on the list. Although improving on last year's ranking, a number of incidents, including the detention of a cameraman at Guantánamo Bay and the murder of a reporter in Oakland, precluded the United States from entering the lead group.
This week, Reporters Without Borders (RSF, from “reporters sans frontières”)—an international nonprofit organization working toward press freedom—released its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Iceland and Norway topped the list this year as the most “free” countries for the press, while Eritrea earned the dubious distinction of replacing North Korea as the worst country in terms of press freedom. The United States only made it to number 48 on the list. Although improving on last year’s ranking, a number of incidents, including the detention of a cameraman at Guantánamo Bay and the murder of a reporter in Oakland, precluded the United States from entering the lead group.
The rankings are based on a Reporters Without Borders questionnaire that is sent to RSF’s partner organizations, its network of correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists, and human rights activists. RSF then scales the responses to create the country rankings. Since responses are somewhat based on subjective assessments, the index itself must at least to some degree reflect certain biases—which may help explain why Slovenia outranked Australia and why Namibia fared better than Spain. Nonetheless, the index provides a useful window into journalists’ perceptions of press freedoms around the world.
Perhaps what’s most striking is the extent to which the RSF index is consistent with both Transparency International’s recently-released Corruption Perceptions Index and also the FP/Fund for Peace Failed States Index. It seems that, for the most part, countries that perform poorly on one count tend to perform poorly across the board.
RSF’s press freedom map:
Transparency International’s corruption perceptions map:
FP/Fund for Peace’s failed states map:
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