RSF PRESS FREEDOM INDEX RANKS ARMENIA THE 111TH

ArmInfo
2009-10-21 15:04:00

ArmInfo. The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries
compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the
organization’s assessment of their press freedom records. Small
countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report. The 2009
index was published on 20 October 2009. Press Freedom Index ranked
Armenia the 111th. As compared to 2008 Armenia’s index did not change.

The official website of the Reporter Without Borders reports that
Denmark ranks the first in the rating (up from 14th position in 2008).

Then go Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden.

As regards the post-Soviet states, only Georgia is ahead of Armenia
-the 81st position. Turkey proved the 122nd , Azerbaijan – 146th,
Russia was 153rd and Iran was 172nd.

"Press freedom must be defended everywhere in the world with the same
energy and the same insistence," Reporters Without Borders secretary-
general Jean-Francois Julliard said Tuesday as his organisation issued
its eighth annual world press freedom index.

"It is disturbing to see European democracies such as France, Italy
and Slovakia fall steadily in the rankings year after year," Julliard
said. "Europe should be setting an example as regards civil liberties.

How can you condemn human rights violations abroad if you do not
behave irreproachably at home? The Obama effect, which has enabled
the United States to recover 20 places in the index, is not enough
to reassure us."

Reporters Without Borders compiles the index every year on the basis of
questionnaires that are completed by hundreds of journalists and media
experts around the world. This year’s index reflects press freedom
violations that took place between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009.