BEIJING â€" If the world were divided into six regions where the press is most free and where it’s least free, Asia, where nearly 60 percent of the world’s people live, would come in fourth, Reporters Without Borders says in its Press Freedom Index 2013.
That’s ahead of the nations in the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East and North Africa (which comes last), but behind Europe (first), the Americas and Africa, in that order.
The assessment is one of several new pieces of information in the just-out index, which tells us other interesting facts: China, as before, is in the bottom 10 of 179 countries; the United States’s position is far lower than many might think at 32 (behind Suriname); and Thailand, popularly viewed as one of the most freewheeling countries in Asia, comes in at a very low 135.
As my colleague, Thomas Fuller, reported from Bangkok last week, a recent case there highlighted a problem facing te media: powerful laws protecting the reputation of the royal family which led to the sentencing of the activist and editor Somyot Pruksakasemsuk to 10 years in prison for insulting Thailand’s king, “the latest in a string of convictions under the country’s strict lèse-majesté law,†Thomas wrote. (Somyot was given an additional year in jail for libeling a general.)
Just how severe Thailand’s laws are is illustrated by the fact that Somyot didn’t even write the two articles that got him jailed (though he was editor of the magazine where they appeared), nor did they mention the king, Thomas wrote.
The sentencing drew a rebuke from the United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay, who criticized the “extremely harsh†sentence as a s! etback for protection of human rights in Thailand and expressed her support for moves to amend the lèse-majesté laws.
Overall, democracies protect freedom of press better than dictatorships, the group said. But the report pointed to problems in democracies too.
There, “news providers have to cope with the media’s economic crises and conflicts of interest,†said its secretary-general, Christophe Deloire.
The situations of a dictatorship and democracy are “not always comparable,†but “we should pay tribute to all those who resist pressure whether it is aggressively focused or diffuse,†he said.
So where is the press doing well As usual, western democracies such as Finland, the Netherlands and Norway lead the table.
In Asia, outside of Australia (at 26th place), the freest press is in Taiwan, which ranks 47. South Korea is next, then Japan - though the report calls that country one of the “big falls,†having dropped a startling 31 places.
Japan “hasbeen affected by a lack of transparency and almost zero respect for access to information on subjects directly or indirectly related to Fukushima,†the nuclear plant disaster in 2011, Reporters Without Borders wrote. The Guardian reports that, according to the European Environment Agency, “the Fukushima disaster in 2011 may have released twice as much radiation as the Japanese government admitted.â€
“This sharp fall should sound an alarm,†Reporters Without Borders said.
Myanmar was the brightest spot in terms of improvement, climbing 18 places to 151, “thanks to the Burmese spring’s unprecedented reforms.â€
Yet other places in Asia dragged the region down to fourth in the world: Malaysia, dropping 23 places to 145, “its lowest-ever position because access to information is becoming more and more limited,†the group said. India, at 140, is “at its lowest since 2002 because of increasing impunity for vi! olence ag! ainst journalists and because Internet censorship continues to grow.â€
And China, long a very poor performer, “shows no sign of improving. Its prisons still hold many journalists and netizens, while increasingly unpopular Internet censorship continues to be a major obstacle to access to information.â€
