Freedom of press in Egypt, Syria, Libya and the Palestinian Territory worsens,
while it improves - but remains very low - in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and
Algeria. These are some of the most important data for the Mediterranean area
in the annual press freedom index for 2007 announced by Reporters Sans
Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) today. The index reflects the still huge
difficulties in which journalists are forced to work in some Maghreb and Middle
East countries, where the governments exert pressure, including violence, on
the newspapers, television and radio broadcasters and on Internet websites. It
is on the web and blogs that the RSF registers a deterioration in the past
year. One example of this is Egypt, in 146th place in the ranking, 13 positions
down compared to 2006. In the country of the Nile, many Internet sites have
been obscured and some bloggers arrested. "We are concerned about the increase
in cases of online censorship," Reporters Without Borders said. "More and more
governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight
for democracy. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting
bloggers and online journalists." There are 64 people currently imprisoned
worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet, according to RSF. In the
Med area, the worst situation is that of the journalists working in the
Palestinian Territories, ranking 158th place out of the 169 countries surveyed.
The 24 places which the Palestinian media lost are due to the abuses carried
out during the civil war between Hamas and Fatah: kidnappings, arrests, attacks
and ransacking of seats of news organisations. The situation in Maghreb is very
disappointing. Compared to the insignificant improvements of Algeria (123rd,
down from 126th in 2006) and Tunisia (145th, the same as last year) there are
the plunges registered by Egypt and Morocco (106th, slipping from 97th).
"Coverage of police abuses, use of torture during interrogation and the lack of
judicial independence stang the Egyptian authorities into tightening the vice
on independent journalists," RSF writes. "Despite all the harassment, the
independent media have openly displayed their lack of enthusiasm for the
possibility that Gamal Mubarak could succeed his father as president." In
Morocco, however, some newspapers have been closed. There has been some
progress for the Gulf states, mainly in Kuwait (63rd, from 73rd in 2006), UAE
(65th, from 77th) and Qatar (moving up to 80th from 79th), although
self-censorship weighs much in these countries. For the first time, Saudi
Arabia has climbed out of the last 20 to 148th. As far as Europe is concerned,
Portugal stands out in eighth place, while the situation in the Balkan media
remains good enough with Slovenia 21st (it was 10th in 2006), and Bosnia stable
at 19th place. The situation in Serbia worsens, while Montenegro debuts at 59th
position. Turkey drops from 98th to 101st. Reporters Without Borders compiles
its annual standings via questionnaires sent to organisations of journalists,
foreign correspondents and NGOs worldwide. This year's ranking sees major press
freedom in Iceland, while Finland was leading the index in 2006. At the bottom
of the list comes Eritrea. Italy is 35th, gaining five positions compared to
last year.
