Press freedom in India deteriorates, rank slips to 78: report

Press freedom in India has deteriorated due to increased "interference" by media owners ahead of the general elections this year as a global media watchdog ranked India at a dismal 78th position in an annual report released today.
"India's score declined by a point, to 39, to reflect increased interference in content by media owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections, which led to the dismissal of key editorial staff in several instances," Freedom of Press 2014 said.
The report, published by Freedom House -- an NGO established in 1941 that has been ranking countries worldwide since 1980 -- ranked China at 183 and Pakistan at 141.

Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden topped the list, which included 197 countries. North Korea was placed at the bottom.
The United States is ranked 30th in the report, which says global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level for over a decade.
The decline was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Libya, and Jordan; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa; and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States, it said.

Karin Karlekar, the report's project director, said: "We see declines in media freedom on a global level, driven by governments' efforts to control the message and punish the messenger."

Of the 197 countries and territories assessed during 2013, a total of 63 (32 per cent) were rated Free, 68 (35 per cent) were rated Partly Free, and 66 (33 per cent) were rated Not Free.
"Press freedom deteriorated in Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and several Pacific Island states, including Nauru, which was downgraded to Partly Free," the report said.
According to Freedom House, triggers for country declines included governments' overt attempts to control news through physical harassment of journalists, restrictions on foreign reporters, tightened constraints on online news outlets and social media, as well as the role of owners in shaping media content and dismissals of outspoken journalists.

Country improvements were driven by three factors: a growing ability of private firms to operate television and radio outlets; greater access to a variety of views via online media, social media, and international outlets; and improved respect for legal protections for the press, it said.
"China and Russia maintained a tight grip on local media while also attempting to control the more independent views provided either in the blogosphere or by foreign news sources," the report said.
The world's eight worst-rated countries on the index were Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, it said.