Israel Matzav

Israel loses top press freedom ranking

The Media Line reports that Israel lost its top ranking for freedom of the press in the Middle East as determined by Reporters without Borders.

In a dramatic realignment in the annual rankings, Reporters Without Borders not only demoted Israel from its long-held spot as the top dog of Middle Eastern media freedom, but relegated the Jewish state to the 93rd most free media environment on earth, 47 spots below its 2008 ranking and well behind Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The Reporters Without Borders annual index is based on questionnaires sent to hundreds of journalists around the world.

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"Israel was on the top since the press index was created and we never said that the press in Israel is not free," Soazig Dollet, head of the Middle East desk at Reporters Without Borders, told The Media Line. "But what we are condemning is the violation of press freedom by Israeli forces and the Gaza War explains everything."

"Palestinian journalists were killed, at least three media buildings were targeted by the Israeli army, Israeli journalists were arrested trying to cover the Gaza operation and two journalists were arrested and charged with spying on behalf of Iran," she said. "All of this explains Israel's drop in the press freedom index."

As to media buildings being targeted, perhaps this story, which broke one year ago tonight, had something to do with it.

Let's go to the videotape.



As to journalists, that might have been a reaction to IDF soldiers being cleared in the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in 2008. If you follow that link, you will find several pictures that will show you why they deserved to be cleared. More on Shana here and here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:26 PM