The international journalists’ body, Reporters Sans Frontieres has published its annual report on global press freedom, The Guardian reports.
Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway jointly top the list of 173 countries, which takes into account different factors including freedom of speech, treatment of journalists and media ownership.
The UK was ranked 23rd, alongside Hungary and Namibia. Eritrea came bottom, with China six places above and Russia in 141st.
RSS reported a continuing erosion of press freedom in many of the world’s most advanced democracies; but laid particular emphasis on the treatment of journalists in closed countries and dictatorships.
France was ranked 35th on the index, down from 31st last year; Italy was 44th, down from 35th; Japan climbed to 29th from 37th last year; and the US was up to joint 36th, from 48th in 2007.
[…] Iceland best place for press freedom […]
Thanks for the comments, again!
Penn:
As you rightly point out, there is a lot of uncertainty here in Iceland at the moment. Therefore, we don’t feel that anybody’s interests are best served by speculation on this website, or in any other media. However, I hope you might have noticed some of our stories getting a little edgier recently (as and when we have the facts or prominent public figures to back them up)?
As far as the Great Icelandic Depression goes; there simply is very little to report yet. There are lay-offs and companies going under, and loans are horribly expensive; but the vast majority of people do still have their jobs.
The shopping malls are full of shoppers and still full of shops with things to buy, just like they always were. In fact, I was personally surprised at just how busy it was last week and how easily and cheaply I was able to buy Halloween pumpkins, fresh coconut and real English cheddar cheese.
Things are going to get worse – we know that. But a lot of people are quietly confident that things won’t get nearly as bad as you predict.
Thanks, once again, for reading IceNews
Alëx
I know it’s partly IceNews’ fault as they don’t supply links, but you do realise Reporters Without Borders is Reporters Sans Frontieres translated from French? :)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29031
Reporters Without Boarders also gives you a good standing. “Number 1”. Kutos to Iceland. Congratulations well earned and well deserved. The American press has a long ways to go to catch up.
Thank you for the reply. You showed me more respect with your words than I deserve.
I appreciate what IceNews is doing, by giving out the Icelandic side of things. However, what I’ve seen on this newspaper is just a string of laudatory articles, laudatory toward the country and the government and the financial situation. There’s nothing wrong with a little optimism and sunshine, but when your country is facing a Great Depression – worse, starvation – I would expect the English-language newspaper to demonstrate a little more moxie in going after the leaders and the bankers. Also, I’d expect it to report the facts. I get the feeling that the facts are being ignored.
The facts as I see them are thus: Iceland’s currency no longer has an exchange rate, which means imports are precarious at best, impossible at worse. Further, the Central Bank is bankrupt and I can scarcely imagine how it will support the thousands of people who lose their jobs, or drown in debt dominated in foreign currencies. Even further, there are no signs of the IMF loan coming thru. In fact, it looks to be receding out of Reykjavik Harbor, out onto the horizon, gone forever. Without that crucial loan, which may or may not be predicated on getting an agreement with the hated British, Iceland is going to… well, we don’t know what’s going to happen. The world is slowing turning its eyeballs away, and there are few reports out of Iceland on the food or financial situation for ordinary people. But I fear ordinary people will be obliterated by this unless the government is changed before winter and the press (what’s left of it) demands answers. How did the government allow this to happen? Where are the bankers? Is there a way to absolve the debt? Is there a back up plan, in case the food supplies run out and the credit cards jam for everyone? Is there a survival plan? How are you going to survive this?
I haven’t seen any answers to this question.
Sincerely,
Penn Bullock, journalist for the Miami and Broward Palm Beach New Times
Thank-you Alex for being an independent Icelander, which is exactly what I was looking for here in icenews. (I’m from USA)
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I appreciate your point, Penn; but at the same time, we are aware of what is being published about Iceland in the British press and feel it unnecessary to republish it here. We feel that visitors to IceNews come here to get an Icelandic point of view – to see the headlines from the other side, as it were.
So, while I appreciate that there is no such thing as unbiased media, I also assure you that IceNews is not censored or restricted by anyone.
Thanks for reading IceNews,
Alëx, IceNews editor
No evidence of press freedom on this website. No reports about the complicity of the government in the financial meltdown. Nor any reports on the oligarchs, the Icelander oligarchs, who are in the Cayman Island sunning while the darkest of winters descends on the country they ruined.
If Icenews is the apotheosis of press freedom, then there is no such thing anywhere.