Top marks

There it is: 16th place for Germany. Not bad, out of 179. But why is Finland so much better; what do they do differently to merit first place in the latest edition of Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index?

In Germany, the president has been accused of trying to prevent the Bild tabloid newspaper from publishing embarrassing information about him. But at least no journalists are killed or kidnapped in Germany for reporting on things the government doesn't like.

There is no censorship committee or paramilitary in Germany trying to pressure media outlets or simply closing them down because the chancellor doesn't like what they report.

Comprehensive criteria – from violence to law

But anyone taking a closer look at RWB's criteria discovers that they are very complex. They go well beyond estimations of violence or maltreatment of journalists. The criteria are listed in a questionnaire that the internationally recognized non-governmental organizations sends out each year to some 500-600 reporters, legal experts, human rights activists and researchers, who then evaluate the media situation in their respective countries.

There are 44 questions to answer; for example, whether or not journalists in their country have been killed or tortured in the period since the last questionnaire was distributed; or whether they have ever been hindered from working on account of their race or gender. They are asked to list whether journalists from state-run media have been spied on or prevented from traveling to certain regions of a country to suppress information.

Press freedom is difficult to achieve

Another aspect is to evaluate how independent the media is and to what extent there is censorship in their country - self-censorship and state-sanctioned censorship.

They are also asked to provide information on how the media in their country is organized and administered and what media and press laws there are.

For the first time in 2011 there is also a major segment devoted to the Internet and new media. Are governments allowing unfettered access and are they working to expand modern information technologies? Are there cases in which the authorities have blocked websites or taken down sites altogether?

In the detailed national report on Germany, RWB criticizes the use of spyware by federal authorities, which can also be used against journalists. The report also criticizes the confiscation of journalistic material during protests against nuclear waste transports, or the fact that mobile phone data from reporters was analyzed by police and judiciary.

Not scientific, but an indicator nonetheless

RWB said access to official information in government agencies was "difficult," as was the protection of sources and informants. This, of course, is nowhere near as bad as the brutal repression and persecution of journalists in so many other countries, but not completely good.

Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan, for example, are at the bottom of the current index, but Syria, Iran and China are also far down on the list, "three countries which appear to have lost contact with reality" and have been caught up in a "spiral of terror," said the NGO. Tunisia moved 30 places up the list since last year, but wide-ranging press freedoms still do not exist there.

Naturally, six journalists or researchers per country are not enough to warrant a scientific result, and the procedure has a tendency to be subjective.

But Reporters Without Borders doesn't claim to be scientific. The index is an attempt to assess the degree of freedom in each country, says the organization.

Gilles Lordet, who coordinated the research for the current edition of the index at RWB's headquarters in Paris, says the ranking is meant to draw attention to the widely-varying conditions journalists around the world work under and what these say about the living conditions in the respective country; a barometer, in other words, with unclear consequences.

Author Marlis Schaum /gb
Editor: Nancy Isenson