Estonia in the front ranks in worldwide press freedom Index, 2007

Estonia is sharing third place with Slovakia in an index measuring the level of press freedom in 169 countries throughout the world that was published by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. At the top of the 2007 index are Iceland and Norway. Only European countries made it into the top 10. Estonia’s northern neighbour Finland shared 5 th place together with Belgium and Sweden. Latvia placed 12 th and Lithuania 23 rd. Russia is on the 144 th place among 169 countries.

Anna Politkovskaya’s murder in October 2006, the failure to punish those responsible for murdering journalists, and the still glaring lack of diversity in the media especially the broadcast media, weighed heavily in the evaluation of press freedom in Russia, the report said. Last three places are held respectively by Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. Outside Europe no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists, Reporters Without Borders said.

The index reflects the degree of freedom that journalists and news organizations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom. Reporters Without Borders prepared a questionnaire with criteria that assess the state of press freedom in each country. It includes every kind of violation directly affecting journalists and also the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for press freedom violations.