Reporters without Borders (RWB) just came out with their 2008 World Freedom of Press IndexI will point out some interesting points and let you click to read the juicy details as well as how RWB creates their index in order to judge the freedom in the press in different nations.
Interesting Points:
Iceland is #1
Canada is #12 (not bad)
Aside from Canada and New Zealand, European countries hold the top 20 list, but the United Kingdom, France, and Spain did not make it.
UK came in at 25 (Namibia beat ya)
France is 35 (Mali beat vous)
Spain is 39 (South Africa beat vosotros)
And the good ol' U.S.A. came in at...41
Who was at the bottom of the list? North Korea was second to last and Eritrea was last at 173.
RWB wrote a long article detailing why the list is the way it is and I highly recommend you read it. Click on this to read the whole thing and look at the entire index, but for now here is a nice little sample:
"The economic disparities among the top 20 are immense. Iceland’s per capita GDP is 10 times Jamaica’s. What they have in common is a parliamentary democratic system, and not being involved in any war. This is not the case with the United States (36th domestically and 119th outside its own territory) and Israel (46th domestically and 149th outside its own territory), whose armed forces killed a Palestinian journalist for the first time since 2003. A resumption of fighting also affected Georgia (120th) and Niger, which fell sharply from 95th in 2007 to 130th this year. Although they have democratic political systems, these countries are embroiled in low or high intensity conflicts and their journalists, exposed to the dangers of combat or repression, are easy prey. The recent provisional release of Moussa Kaka, the Niger correspondent of RFI and Reporters Without Borders, after 384 days in prison in Niamey and cameraman Sami al-Haj’s release after six years in the hell of Guantanamo serve as reminders that wars sweep away not only lives but also, and above all, freedom."
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