22:20, 2 May 2007

Russia and Azerbaijan share the 164th position in the rank of mass media freedom

The Freedom House Human Rights Organization has made public its report on the freedom of mass media worldwide. In the rating by the level of mass media freedom Russia has shared position No. 164 with Azerbaijan, still ahead of Brunei, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Swaziland, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

Speaking about Russian "successes" in the sphere of granting freedom to mass media, the authors of the report inform about "the aggressive attempts of the Russian government to further isolate the media voices, the attempts intermixing with the plans to regulate the Internet."

The authors of the report are comparing Russia with such countries like Iran, China and Vietnam, where the authorities continue to pursue journalists and "cyber-dissidents."

It has been already reported in the "Caucasian Knot" information that Russia and Azerbaijan have also found themselves in the list of the ten countries, drafted by the Committee for Defence of Journalists (CDJ) by May 3, the International Day of Press Freedom, which have witnessed the most significant drop in the level of press freedom during the latest decade.