PressEthic

Reporters Without Borders sent a a questionnaire with 50 criteria to its partner organizations in five continents and 130 correspondents. It's solely based on events from September 1, 2005 to September 1, 2006.

Here are some rankings.

(1) Four peaceful European nations topped the list: Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and Netherlands. (Anyone surprised?)

(2) Out of the top 22 nations on the upper part of the list, only four nations were non-European: Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand, and Trinidad Tobago.

(3) Curious how well some of the most powerful nations in the world did in the index? Not strikingly well. Germany ranked 23rd,United Kingdom 27th, France 35th, Japan 51st, Russia 147th, and finally, China 163rd.

(4) What about the United States? 53rd, along with Botswana, Croatia, and Tonga. (For your reference, once war-torn nations such as El Salvador, Mozambique and Namibia ranked better.)

(5) Ten worst nations to be a journalist: Nepal(159th), Ethiopia(160th), Saudi Arabia(161st), Iran(162nd), China(163rd), Burma(164th), Cuba(165th), Eritrea(166th), Turkmenistan(167th), and of course, North Korea(168th).

The Economist ran an analysis on the list this week. The article said, "America's rating has been downgraded thanks to growing tension between the administration and the media-caused, for example, by pressure on reporters to reveal sources." Jailing of Josh Wolf, the blogger who refused to hand over film of a political protest in California, did not help either, the magazine pointed out.

I don't think the list perfectly represents the reality. For instance, I don't buy South Korea is a better place to be a reporter than the United States. (South Korean tax authority has recently launched a full-scale investigation on my newspaper company. Again.)

However, the list is worth savering. I personally find the questionnaire more interesting than the result itself. Here are some of the 50 questions the organization asked.

--how many journalists were murdered?

--how many journalists were murdered, with the state involved?

--how many journalists were arrested or sent to prison?

--were any journalists Illegally imprisoned?

--were any journalists tortured or ill-treated?

--did any journalists disappear?

--was there improper use of fines, summonses or legal action against journalists or media outlets?

--was there problems of access to public or official information (refusal by officials, selection of information provided according to the media’s editorial line etc)?

--were media outlets censored, seized or ransacked?

--were there Independent or opposition news media?

--were there censorship or seizure of foreign newspapers?

Reading through the questions, I realized something. Press freedom is indeed something very dear.