I årsrapporten fra “Reportere uden Grænser” for 2010, som nu er på gaden, opregnes 10 lande, hvor det er rigtig, rigtig slemt at være journalist. Den økonomiske supermagt, Kina, er blandt disse bundskrabere på listen, der omfatter i alt 178 nationer. Til gengæld er Cuba ikke med – for første gang.
De 10 skræklande er – regnet fra bunden med det værste land først og så opefter: Eritrea, Nordkorea, Turkmenistan, Iran, Burma, Syrien, Sudan, Kina, Yemen og Rwanda.
Det hedder i meldingen om Press Freedom Index 2010:
In recent years, Reporters Without Borders drew particular attention to the three countries that were always in the last three positions – Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. This year, a bigger group of ten countries – marked by persecution of the media and a complete lack of news and information – are clumped together at the bottom.
The press freedom situation keeps on deteriorating in these countries and it is getting harder to say which is worse than the other. The difference between the scores of the “best” and worst of the last 10 countries was only 24.5 points this year. It was 37.5 points in 2009 and 43.25 points in 2007.
It is worth noting that, for the first time since the start of the index in 2002, Cuba is not one of the 10 last countries.
This is due above all to the release of 14 journalists and 22 activists in the course of the past summer. But the situation on the ground has not changed significantly. Political dissidents and independent journalists still have to deal with censorship and repression on a daily basis.
Freedom is not allowed any space in Burma, where a parliamentary election is due to be held next month, and the rare attempts to provide news or information are met with imprisonment and forced labour.
Finally, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico, countries either openly at war or in a civil war or some other kind of internal conflict, we see a situation of permanent chaos and a culture of violence and impunity taking root in which the press has become a favourite target.
These are among the most dangerous countries in the world, and the belligerents there pick directly on reporters such as French TV journalists Stéphane Taponier and Hervé Ghesquière, who have been held hostage in Afghanistan for the past 300 days.
Economic growth does not mean press freedom
The BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – may all be at a roughly similar stage of economic development but the 2010 index highlights major differences in the press freedom situation in these countries.
Thanks to favourable legislative changes, Brazil (58th) has risen 12 places in the past year, while India has fallen 17 places to 122nd. Russia, which had a particularly deadly preceding year, is still poorly placed at 140th. Despite an astonishingly vibrant and active blogosphere, China still censors and jails dissidents and continues to languish in 171st place.
These four countries now shoulder the responsibilities of the emerging powers and must fulfil their obligations as regards fundamental rights.
Heavy falls
The Philippines, Ukraine, Greece and Kyrgyzstan all fell sharply in this year’s index.
In the Philippines this was due to the massacre of around 30 journalists by a local baron, in Ukraine to the slow and steady deterioration in press freedom since Viktor Yanukovych’s election as president in February, in Greece to political unrest and physical attacks on several journalists, and in Kyrgyzstan to the ethnic hatred campaign that accompanied the political turmoil.
The changes are unfortunately often deceptive. Some countries have risen sharply in the index this year but in fact all they have done is recover their traditional position after a particularly difficult if not disastrous 2009. This is the case with Gabon, which rose 22 places, South Korea (+27) and Guinea-Bissau (+25).
Man kan se hele Press Freedom Index på
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html
