Reporters Without Borders published first worldwide press freedom index

According to analysts, the first worldwide index of press freedom published by the Reporters Without Borders has some surprises for Western democracies. 139 countries in total are included in the list. North Korea ranks the last place as a country with least press freedom. The United States have only the 17th place.

Five highest-scoring countries, where press freedom is seriously respected, are Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Azerbaijan ranks in the 101th place, Russia - in the 121th. Tajikistan has the highest rank (86th) among the countries of the former USSR.

According to the words of experts, the list shows that press freedom is under threat everywhere, with the 20 bottom-ranked countries drawn from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The situation is especially bad in Asia, which contains the five worst offenders.

Another conclusion from the data given in the list is that rich countries have no monopoly of press freedom. Costa Rica (15th) and Benin (21th) are examples of how growth of a free press does not just depend on a country's material prosperity.

The index was drawn up by asking journalists, researchers and legal experts to answer 50 questions about the whole range of press freedom violations (such as murders or arrests of journalists, censorship, pressure, state monopolies in various fields, punishment of press law offences and regulation of the media).