Kim Jong Il needs to work harder because he is #2 as the worst for press freedom. Eritrea came in first. Honestly, I do not know how that country could be any worse, but it must be pretty bad to be ranked #1.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) — North Korea narrowly escaped being branded the country with the least press freedom in the world, coming in second to last after Eritrea, an annual index released by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.
North Korea came in 168th among 169 nations that were judged on the level of media freedom in the country. Turkmenistan was just one notch above North Korea.
I? know? Turkmenistan? was pretty bad, but did not think it was that bad. So maybe Kim can celebrate. His placement on the most repressive of regimes is improving somewhat. Perhaps another mass game or a public execution. Who knows?
If you are interested in the report, here it is. Reporters? Without? Borders? gives? the? reason? why? Eritrea? came? in? dead? last:
“There is nothing surprising about this,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Even if we are not aware of all the press freedom violations in North Korea and Turkmenistan, which are second and third from last, Eritrea deserves to be at the bottom. The privately-owned press has been banished by the authoritarian President Issaias Afeworki and the few journalists who dare to criticise the regime are thrown in prison. We know that four of them have died in detention and we have every reason to fear that others will suffer the same fate.”
Hm, North Korea does the same thing, but I guess it makes some sense considering it is a little difficult to go into the gulags and ask around. In any case, those are the winners of the losers in freedom of the press. I am pretty sad to read about the state of the United States:
There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeera’s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.
Those inceidents of the blogger I had no idea about, and as for the Gitmo detainees is a very, very controversial issue, and the United States is very divided on that. I personally do not know what to think of it because a lot of the things going on down there has not all been brought to light other than the propaganda blaring from both sides of the issue. I personally do not care for the idea, but when I say that, I am labled a terrorist sympathizer. I do not support terrorism, but I wonder what is really going on down there. Anyway, this is not a Gitmo debate, this is about freedom of the press.
It? seems? China? is? not? too? friendly? to? bloggers:
Government repression no longer ignores bloggers
The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.
In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. “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 and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media.”
At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China? [rank? 163] maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.
Pretty scary.? I am all for the freedom of the press without the fear of beatings, prison or repression. As North Korea sits near the very bottom of the barrel, it makes me pretty sad to see the United States at #48. It should be a shining example of freedom, but alas, it is not. Is the report biased? Do they not understand? I am not too sure, but it still makes me sad all the same.
South Korea and Chile are tied at #39, which is not all that great either.
All the same, Reporters Wihtout Boreders is not free from controversy either and is accused of bias. I do not know who runs Counterpunch, but it seems conservative circles do not care for them while the Wikipedia article tends to paint the American left as praising it. Since I do not depend on Wikipedia for accuracy, I am not going to hang my hat on the article. All I know Reporters Without Borders is not free from controversy is all I am trying to get at here.
Here is how Reporters Without Borders compiles this index. I’ll leave it up to the readers to decide if the list is fair or not.
Update:? see? ROK? Drop’s? take? on
this.? I? would? also? love? to? see? a? list? of? the? abuses? of? freedom? given? to? others.
See? NK? EconWatch?
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I am not a journalist, nor am I an expert in journalism, but I think North Korea belongs at the very bottom in “first place.” Unless I have missed something, there is *no* free press in contemporary North Korea and, therefore, there are no “journalists of conscience” behind bars. Perhaps some form of a free press existed at one time after “liberation” by the Soviet Army, but certainly not today.
Eritrea does belong at the bottom of the list IMHO, but not in last place (or “first place”). Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all for the Eritrean people is that, after fighting for and gaining their independence, they also gained a dictatorship. But I digress ….
I totally agree North Korea should be dead last. It has one the most repressive policies ever devised, and as you say there is absolutely NO freedom of the press whatsoever. Everything is done through the Propaganda and Agitation Department, and whatever they say is gospel. End of story.
I would also like to aplogize for the other parts of the post, but I had to mention the people who compiled the list may not be viewed as totally fair becase I found controversies surrounding it. Also, I should have not complained where the U.S. is on the list either because it had nothing to do with North Korea.