Not-so-happy Press Freedom Day

Not-so-happy Press Freedom Day

Press freedom across the world is declining, and the situation is particularly bad in the Middle East, says an annual press survey.

May 3, 2009 11:39 by Aarti Nagraj

According to the annual press survey published by US-based NGO, Freedom House, “negative trends” outweighed positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa during the last year. “This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries [...] were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments,” the report said.

Freedom House cited specific concerns about harassment of journalists and bloggers in Libya, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

“Given the current economic climate, which is certain to place a further strain on media sustainability and diversity in rich and poor countries alike, pressures on media freedom are now looming from all angles and are increasingly threatening the considerable gains of the past quarter-century,” it added.

Kipp wonders if there will ever be a perfect world where journalists can report on any issue under the sun.

Of course not. Sigh.