Status of world press freedom

Freedom House released its annual Press Freedom survey this week as part of World Press Freedom Day.

And the news is not good. By the Freedom House figures, about 85 percent of the people in the world live in countries where the media are either “Partly Free” or “Not Free” from government interference.

Freedom of the Press 2011 Survey Release

Freedom of the Press 2011 identifies the greatest threats to independent media in 196 countries and territories. Released on May 2 as part of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebration in Washington, D.C., the report shows that global media freedom has reached a new low point, contributing to an environment in which only one in every six people live in countries with a Free press.

Rest of report.

Obviously I have an interest in how Honduras is doing. Unfortunately for that Central American country, the situation has deteriorated such that it moved from “Free” to “Partly Free.” It was joined by Egypt, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and Ukraine.

The rate of decline in press freedom seems to be stepping up. The Freedom House team put together a couple of 5-year trend charts to show what has been happening. (To repeat: Things don’t look good.)

The Freedom House report noted: “Not since 2006 have so many countries in the [Americas] been designated Not Free.” And, as noted above, the Americas are not unique in this depressing situation.

Besides all the charts and tables, there is the famous Press Freedom Map. This is a “must have” for any newsroom, freelancer’s home office and j-school. (Yes, you can get a copy.)

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