Reporters Without Borders recently (2002/10/23) published their first worldwide
Press Freedom Index. The top twenty countries in descending order (most to least "free") are:
1. Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands
5. Canada
6. Ireland
7. Germany, Portugal, Sweden
10. Denmark
11. France
12. Australia, Belgium
14. Slovenia
15. Costa Rica, Switzerland
17. United States
18. Hong Kong
19. Greece
20. Ecuador
The
ranking is based on the results of a list of 50 questions sent to
journalists,
researchers and
legal experts.
The questions dealt with a wide range of
freedom of the press related issues including
threats and attacks (official and unofficial) to
journalists,
protection afforded to
threatened journalists (including direct protection and in the form of combating those making the threats or attacks),
state monopolies in various areas,
and
censorship.
The top four countries Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, are
given high praise for being particularily scrupulous in both respecting
freedom of the press in their countries and in supporting it elsewhere.
The U.S. ranks lower than some might expect primarily because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources and as a result of some of the fallout from September 11th.
The ten countries at the bottom of the list are:
130. Iraq
131. Vietnam
132. Eritrea
133. Laos
134. Cuba
135. Bhutan
136. Turkmenistan
137. Burma
138. China
139. North Korea
Source
An article which includes the entire list of countries in the index and describes some of the
rationale behind the rankings at
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4116 (last accessed 2002/10/23)