Thursday, October 26, 2006

Macedonia ranks 45th in Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006

The annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006 from Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders shows that Macedonia is ranked 45th.

In the annual report Macedonia shares 45 to 48 place with Cape Verde, Mozambique and Serbia and Montenegro with the so-called freedom press index, which is 11,50.

The first place share Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Netherlands while the three worst violators of free expression - North Korea, bottom of the Index at 168th place, Turkmenistan (167th) and Eritrea (166th) - have clamped down further.

Denmark (19th) dropped from joint first place because of serious threats against the authors of the Mohammed cartoons published there in autumn 2005. For the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection due to threats against them because of their work.

Bosnia-Herzegovina (19th) continued its gradual rise up the Index since the end of the war in ex-Yugoslavia and is now placed above its European Union member-state neighbours Greece (32nd) and Italy (40th).

The index measures the state of press freedom in the world. It reflects the degree of freedom journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom. Reporters Without Borders compiled a questionnaire with 50 criteria for assessing the state of press freedom in each country. The questionnaire was sent to partner organisations of Reporters Without Borders (14 freedom of expression groups in five continents) and its 130 correspondents around the world, as well as to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists.

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