Reporters without Borders released its annual report Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2008, which witnesses that Kyrgyzstan climbed one position up, as compared to the last year and ranked 111 among 173 states.
The index contains outcomes of the research of the press freedom from November 1, 2007 to September 1, 2008. The level of press freedom is estimated on 50 criteria, such as number of murdered, injured and imprisoned journalists, censorship, state monopoly on radio and TV, presence of independent and oppositional media, level of availability of information for journalists.
This year Georgia is a definite leader in press freedom level decrease which dropped down to 120th position from the 66th in 2007 index. The report also mentions a number of journalists, who became victims of a forced military conflict in Caucasus this year.
The most favorable situation on the post Soviet territory is traced in Estonia – 4th place, Latvia – 7th (12th last year) and Lithuania – 16th (23rd last year). In 2008 Ukraine takes the 87th position (92nd last year), Moldova – 98th (81st last year), Armenia – 102nd (77th), Tajikistan – 106th (115th).
Situation in Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan is worse than in Kyrgyzstan. This year these countries ranked 125th, 141st and 162nd places respectively.
