Greece drops on journalistic freedom index

Freedom of the press has rarely been an issue inside Greece. Journalists enjoy the free environment they need to do their reporting, often taking liberties with their subjects and being criticized for it. So when figures show the country being very low on the relevant list, it sounds odd.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) issued its yearly report about the freedom of the press, placing Greece in the 99th position in a list of 180 countries. That's 14 places below from 2012. The explanation is quite convincing.

In June 2013, prime minister Samaras unilaterally decided and announced the total shutdown of ERT, the state owned radio and television broadcaster. This seemingly unprecedented act is the main reason why Greece has been denigrated on the freedom of press issue. However, the ranking given, placing Greece below countries where there is hardly any freedom of speech, or where journalists are hunted for sport, seems to indicate a rather skewed, or sloppy, at best, methodological approach. At worst it may be construed as malicious.

Greece is not the country with the worst grade in Europe. Bulgaria fell 12 places to No. 100, becoming the worst EU country concerning freedom of press, on account of violent attacks on the press by the country's security forces during demonstrations.

The most dangerous country in the world for journalists by far, is Syria (No. 177) due to the ongoing civil war which resulted in the killing of over 20 journalists last year. It is topped only by Turkmenistan (No. 178), North Korea (No. 179) and Eritrea (No. 180).

For a fourth consecutive year, Finland is the best country in the world for journalism, followed by the Netherlands and Norway (same as last year). The US dropped 13 places from last year at No. 43, the UK lost 3 and landed at No. 33, while France lost 1 (No. 39).