NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has ranked Tajikistan 149th out of 180 countries for press freedom, placing it between Russia (148th) and Ethiopia (150th) in terms of restrictions on reporters.
Norway and Sweden placed first and second, respectively, for the second consecutive year.
North Korea came in last place overall, while Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria and China also made up the bottom five.
Former Soviet republics are at the forefront of the decline worldwide, RSF said, with almost two-thirds of the region’s countries ranking near or below 150.
Belarus is ranked 155th and Kazakhstan is ranked 158th.
Azerbaijan (163rd), Uzbekistan (165th) and Turkmenistan (178th) are ranked among 21 worst countries in terms of restriction on reporters.
Only Kyrgyzstan is ranked 98th but it registered one of the index’s biggest falls at nine places, after a year with a great deal of harassment of the media including “astronomic fines for insulting the head of state.”
Meanwhile, RSF is warning that violations of press freedom are no longer the practice of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.
The Paris-based group said in its 2018 World Press Freedom Index, released on April 25, that the climate of hatred is steadily becoming more visible in the index.
“Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries… The hatred of journalism is now a dangerous threat to democracies as well,” the report said.
