Where We Rank on the Press Freedom Index
27 October 2010By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid
Around this time every year, those in the media await
the results of an annual report, issued by the media
rights group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB). In this
report, RWP ranks countries in accordance to the
freedom enjoyed by their domestic media outlets. To
obtain a high position on this index, as Arab
journalists, would almost be equivalent to the dream
of winning the elusive FIFA World Cup.
Yet all Arab countries were ranked in the second half
of the index, which encompasses 178 countries
worldwide. This ranking is hardly surprising; and no
one can object, as it represents our true position.
Though the restriction placed on our media in the Arab
world is a common denominator, some of us experience
less freedom than the others.
Countries with the coldest climates also appear to
enjoy the widest margin of press freedom. Finland
topped the index, followed by Iceland, the
Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. At the bottom of the
list came warmer countries such as Eritrea, which not
only illegally acquires broadcasting rights for sports
and feature films, but also imprisons its journalists
for publishing news items that do not appeal to
President Isaias Afewerki, no matter how trivial they
may be.
Lebanon was ranked in 78th place, after Guatemala,
Kenya and Benin, which despite their unsavoury
political systems; enjoy greater media freedom than
us. Despite its low global position, RWP recognized
Lebanon as the highest ranking Arab country on the
index. It goes without saying that the press freedom
margin in Lebanon is far wider than in Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Syria and Yemen. However, I believe it is wrong
to rank Lebanon almost twice as highly as countries
like Morocco and Iraq.
In Lebanon, you cannot draw a single strip cartoon
depicting Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, or any of his
followers. You cannot screen a film about Jesus
Christ, if it does not appeal to the Church.
Furthermore, it would be madness to think of
criticizing anything related to the history of Islam.
Media freedom in Lebanon is dependent on the political
camp you belong to. For example, if you are a member
of the March 8 Alliance, Hezbollah, the Amal Movement,
or a supporter of General Aoun, then you are able to
criticize at will. However, if you belong to the March
14 Alliance, like Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, then
all you can do is offer more apologizes.
Reporters Without Borders do not incorporate the
factor of ‘fear' as part of their measurement, but
rather they collate the number of banned articles,
confiscated newspapers, blocked websites and killed
reporters. Iraq has the largest number of press
fatalities, yet in reality it enjoys a much wider
margin of press freedom than Lebanon. In Iraq, just
like Lebanon, you can criticize the government but [in
Lebanon] you will have to be very cautious when
dealing with the issue of armed militias.
In Morocco, an amazing margin of press freedom exists,
despite the fact that a newspaper has been
reprimanded, and some news items have been censored,
during the current year. Egypt too enjoys a relatively
acceptable margin of press freedom, or to be more
accurate, it is becoming both difficult and expensive
to employ brutal methods of silencing journalists.
This is apparent considering that the Egyptian
opposition have been outspoken in their claim that the
purchase of al-Dustour newspaper [completed by Sayed
Badawi, head of the Egyptian Wafd party in August
2010], was a deliberate scheme to remove Ibrahim Eissa
from the editor-in-chief post.
Despite continuing restrictions on the freedom of the
press in Egypt, it is not true that press freedom in
the UAE, Oman, and Qatar, is greater than that
permitted in Egypt, which has been ranked far behind
the aforementioned Gulf States on the RWB index. This
is an absurd idea to anyone familiar with what is
written and broadcast in the Gulf.
Kuwait is the only exception in the Gulf region. It
finished nine places behind Lebanon, making it the
second-highest Arab country on the Press Freedom
index. Kuwait deserves recognition because it allows
considerably more freedom than the rest of the Arab
countries. However, we must admit that this ‘freedom'
in Kuwait is incomplete, just as with Lebanon.
Kuwait's government is inclined toward appeasing
extremist groups, by banning books that do not appeal
to them. It also prosecutes newspapers, TV stations
and internet websites, as well as stripping dissidents
of their Kuwaiti citizenship. As a result, Kuwait was
ranked lower than countries such as Serbia and Panama,
yet it still came higher than the rest of the Arab
region, bar Lebanon.
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