At 03:04 PM 10/24/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Press freedom: Suomi is Yksi. US ranks 17th. Sorry,
>Yoshie and Carrol, your teams, China and North Korea,
>came in last.
>
>---------------------------------------------------
>Survey shows that press freedom is not the privilege
>of
> the rich nations
> Wed Oct 23, 4:58 PM ET
>
> PARIS - Finland, Iceland, Norway
>and the Netherlands enjoy more press
> freedom than other countries,
>while China and North Korea (news - web sites)
> have the least, according to a
>survey of 139 countries issued Wednesday by
> Reporters Without Borders.
>
> The survey by the press watchdog
>group shows that press freedom is
> threatened in all corners of the
>globe, and rich nations do not necessarily
> guarantee liberty of the press
>better than poor nations.
>
> Slovenia and Costa Rica, for
>instance, placed 14th and 15th, respectively, in
> the survey — ahead of the United
>States which placed 17th. Switzerland shared
> 15th place with Costa Rica.
>
> France, where Reporters Without
>Borders is based, placed 11th — in 8th
> position among members of the
>15-member European Union (news - web sites).
> Italy ranked 40th.
>
> The first non-European country
>on the list is Canada — in 5th place.
>
> The survey reflects the degree
>of liberty that journalists and the media benefit
> from in the countries listed, as
>well as the policies put in place by each state to
> ensure press freedom, according
>to Reporters Without Borders. The survey
> concerns the period from
>September 2001 to October 2002.
>
> The list was compiled based on
>responses to questionnaires filled out by
> "several independent sources" in
>each country — journalists, researchers and
> specialists of the law,
>Reporters Without Borders said. Complete responses
> were obtained from 139
>countries.
>
> "Paradoxically, some
>democratically elected governments have a poor score,"
>a
> statement by Reporters Without
>Borders said, noting Colombia ranked 114 and
> Bangladesh ranked 118. In both
>cases, armed movements, militias or political
> parties "constantly put in peril
>the security of journalists."
>
> More surprising, perhaps, is
>that "respect for freedom of the press is not the
> privilege of rich nations,"
>Reporters Without Borders said.
>
> The small African nation of
>Benin held 21st place in the survey even though it is
> ranked by the United Nations
>(news - web sites) as one of the world's 15
> poorest countries, Reporters
>Without Borders said.
>
> The United States' 17th ranking
>is linked mainly to the number of journalists
> detained or jailed, with arrests
>often motivated by journalists' refusal to reveal
> their sources, the organization
>said. It added that since the Sept. 11 terror
> attacks, a number of journalists
>have been detained for violating security
> perimeters of official
>buildings. No details were provided.
>
> No country in the Middle East
>placed among the top 50 nations in the survey.
>
> Tailing the list was China,
>followed by North Korea.
>
>=====
>"A question is always the desire to know, and to preserve simple human
>truths, we need secrets. The secrets of happiness, death, love."
>
> From the movie "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
>http://webhosting.yahoo.com/