|
|
Worldwide Press Freedom Index
The Worldwide Press Freedom Index is a list of countries compiled annually since 2002 by the Paris based Reporters Without Borders ('Reporters sans frontières' www.rfa.org) an organisation dedicated to free press and media in the world. In the latest 2005 index 167 countries are ranked according to the current situation regarding the amount of freedom journalists and news/media organisations have in each country, and how the state governments deal with the press.
In general in East Asia, countries score quite low, with little surprise North Korea is bottom of the table at 167th, closely followed by Myanmar/Burma at 163rd, China 159th, Vietnam 158th and Laos 155th. Singapore ranks 140th, the Philippines 139th, Malaysia 113th, Thailand 107th.. Cambodia comes out higher than all of these at 90th, meaning the press and reporters in Cambodia enjoy much more freedom in what they write than its neighbouring countries.
The 2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index covers the period between 1st September 2004 and 1st September 2005, only events during this time are taken into account. The rankings are based on only press freedom violations and not human rights in general.
Reporters Without Borders has indexes for 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Links to the Worldwide Press Freedom Indexes at Reporters Without Borders:
2002 - Cambodia 71st
2003 - Cambodia 81st
2004 - Cambodia 109th
2005 - Cambodia 90th
Each year that the index has been created, Cambodia has ranked significantly higher than most if not all of its geographical neighbours. The freedom enjoyed by journalists & reporters in Cambodia should be celebrated and the country should be recognised for its efforts towards building and maintaining a free press in recent years.
How the Press Freedom Index was compiled
|
|
