EPAL: Nepal among ten worse countries in terms of free press, says RSF Nepal ranks near the bottom of RSF's annual press freedom index Nepal News Friday, October 21, 2005 AsiaMedia Editor's Note: Reports are unclear as to whether the lifting of the state of emergency on April 30 allows for press freedom, and thus Nepalnews may still be operating under the directives of King Gyanendra. A Paris-based press freedom watchdog has said Nepal ranks among ten worse countries where free press is gagged. According to the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005 launched by the Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF) on Thursday, Nepal ranks at the 8th position from the bottom out of 167 countries surveyed. "King Gyanendra of Nepal is trying to wipe out 15 years of democratic achievement by the independent press with censorship and arrests and his government has sent soldiers to newspaper offices. About 150 journalists were arrested by the authorities in the first 10 days of September this year," the report said. The Maoist rebels killed, kidnapped and threatened journalists, especially pro-government ones, who criticised them, the RSF added. More than 400 journalists were arrested or imprisoned by the security forces in Nepal in 2004 and more than 30 were harassed by Maoists, the report said. Two journalists were killed, 413 arrested, 13 kidnapped, 76 physically attacked and 29 others were threatened in Nepal last year, the report said. The report was prepared before the royal government introduced new media law, which critics say aims at further curbing the fragile media freedom in the country. In the index, Nepal has fallen behind China (159th) and Vietnam (158th) improved. Though no journalists are now in jail, the ruling Communist Party still controls the media in Vietnam, the report said. North Korea once again comes at the bottom of the WPF Index closely followed by Eritrea (166th) and Turkmenistan (165th), which are other "black holes" for news where the privately-owned media is not allowed and freedom of expression does not exist, the organisation said. The situation in Iraq (157th) deteriorated further during the year as the safety of journalists became more precarious. At least 24 journalists and media assistants have been killed so far this year, making it the mostly deadly conflict for the media since World War II. A total of 72 media workers have been killed since the fighting began in March 2003. Some Western democracies slipped down the Index. The United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and legal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources. Canada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists into "court auxiliaries." At the top of the Index once again are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, where robust press freedom is firmly established, the report said. Countries that have recently won their independence or have recovered it are very observant of press freedom and give the lie to the insistence of many authoritarian leaders that democracy takes decades to establish itself. Nine states that have had independence (or recovered it within the past 15 years) are among the top 60 countries -- Slovenia (9th), Estonia (11th), Latvia (16th), Lithuania (21st), Namibia (25th), Bosnia-Herzegovina (33rd), Macedonia (43rd), Croatia (56th) and East Timor (58th). And, there were some striking improvements too, according to the RSF. Press freedom improved in Tonga (63rd), where the democratic opposition and the courts managed to push back arbitrary measures by the king. Mongolia (53rd) recorded very little interference with journalists despite continuing government control of the public media. Malaysia (113th) no longer has any journalists or cyber-dissidents in prison and peace accords in Indonesia (102nd) have opened up the former rebel province of Aceh to journalists. Despite occasional violence, the media works in good conditions and online media are prolific, the report said. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=31985