ERBIL, Iraq â€" Despite the upheavals of what was optimistically termed the Arab Spring, much of the Middle East still suffers a deficit of press freedom as turmoil continues to unsettle the region.
As the United Nations marked World Press Freedom Day on Friday, a survey of the past year ranked the Middle East at the bottom of an international score card of media freedom.
Reporters Without Borders, which published the index, said 2012 was the deadliest year globally for reporters and citizen journalists in a decade in which 600 have been killed in the course of their work.
Syria, where at least 23 reporters and 58 citizen journalists have been killed since March 15, 2011, was the most perilous place for journalists.
Those killed included Marie Colvin, an American, and Mika Yamamoto of Japan, who were both named World Press Freedom Heroes by the International Press Institute.
Reporters Without Borders said they were victims of an information war waged by both the regime of President Bashar Al Assad, which it said stopped at nothing to impose a news blackout, but also by opposition factions that were increasingly intolerant of dissent.
For the first time, the media-rights watchdog added Syrian rebel groups to its list of so-called predators. It cited the Al Nusra Front and other Islamist rebel groups as among those that were proving to be increasingly intolerant and suspicious toward the media.
There was also a gloomy assessment about developments in countries such as Egypt, where bloggers and other Internet activists were credited for a role in overturning autocratic regimes.
The predators’ list also singled out members and supporters of the dominant Muslim Brotherhood for harassing and physically attacking independent media and journalists critical of the party.
Germany’s Deutsche Welle, in an article marking the 20th World Press Freedom Day, said the fall of dictatorial regimes after the Arab Spring apparently had not brought about any durable guarantees for freedom of expression.
It said that among those targeted were Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian TV satirist, who had to face Egyptian prosecutors over charges of insulting Islam and President Mohamed Morsi.
It also cited the case of Weld El, 15, a Tunisian rapper recently sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for insulting the police.
Freedom House in the United States, while noting a worrying decline in world press freedom, said Libya and Tunisia had retained gains in press freedom won during the Arab Spring revolts.
But in Egypt the media environment declined and was now described as unfree, it said.
