Report calls Eritrea world's worst country for press freedom

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/20/report-calls-eritrea-worlds-worst-country-for-press-freedom/


(CNN) - How bad is it to be a journalist in Eritrea? Even reporters who leave the Horn of Africa nation are fearful of talking about what happens there, according to Reporters Without Borders.

The group rated Eritrea as the world's worst place to be a journalist in its annual report on press freedom, issued Tuesday.

"Nobody knows about that country, because you can't report on what's going on there," said Clothilde Le Coz, the Washington director of Reporters Without Borders. Eritrean journalists who travel abroad won't talk, she said, because "they really fear for their lives."

The group's report offered a mixed view of how much freedom journalists had in 175 nations from September 1, 2008, through August 31, 2009, based on a 40-question survey completed by hundreds of media figures around the world.

It showed the Baltic Sea region as the best place for media freedom, with five of the top six nations on the list - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden - located there.

Conversely, Eritrea was rated the worst - No. 175 - slightly behind North Korea, Turkmenistan, Iran, Burma and Cuba.

The United States was rated No. 20, an improvement of 20 places over the previous year, with the report citing "Barack Obama's election as president and the fact that he has a less hawkish approach than his predecessor."