Freedom House has issued its report on worldwide freedom of the press for 2009, and the news isn't good. For the first time, net press freedom has declined in every region of the world, continuing a seven year trend of tighter restrictions on information. Some examples of press limitation include government restrictions on media outlets, court rulings against free expression, and intimidation and imprisonment of journalists. Israel, Italy, and Honk Kong actually dropped from "free" status to "partly free". But it's not all bad news. The Maldives saw the biggest improvement on the year, with the ratification of a constitution that explicitly protects freedom of the press. So, yay? More details here.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Freedom on the March...Backward
