Freedom House: Global press freedom declines to lowest point in more than 10 years
According to the Freedom of the Press 2015 report published by Freedom House, global press freedom has declined to its lowest point in more than 10 years. The report placed 63 out of 199 countries in the “free” category, with 71 countries in the “partly free” and 65 in the “not-free” categories. In addition to Turkey with a score of 65, Armenia with 61, Azerbaijan with 87 and Russia with 83 are all in the “not-free” category.
Freedom House project manager Jennifer Durham, speaking about the global decline of press freedom, said, “There is a danger that instead of encouraging honest, objective journalism and freedom of information as the proper antidote, democracies will resort to censorship or propaganda of their own”.
Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands and Denmark stood out as countries where the press enjoyed the most freedom, while Belarus, Crimea, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were the worst-ranked.
After 15 years in the “partly free” category, Turkey entered the “not-free” category last year and remains there, occupying among 199 countries the 142nd position along with Malaysia and Pakistan. Turkey is also the worst ranked country in Europe, and the only country in Europe ranked as “not-free”.
The report draws attention to the fact that restrictions imposed on journalists publishing reports on matters of national security, the reinforcement of the intelligence service and the blocking of internet content played a role in Turkey’s decline from 62 to 65 points.
Click here to access the full report.
