Croatia Jumps 7 Spots on Freedom of Press Rankings

There has been an improvement in media freedom in Croatia last year, according to the latest annual World Press Freedom Index released today by Reporters Without Borders…

Croatia has jumped seven positions and is now ranked in 58th position with a score of 26.12 and is grouped with nations with scores between 25 and 30 points.

Nordic countries Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden topped the index along with the Netherlands. The five worst-ranked nations were China, Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea. In Croatia’s region, Slovenia were best ranked (35th), while Bosnia and Herzegovina were 66th and Serbia 67th. America was ranked 49th, Russia 152nd and Israel 96th.

Every year Reporters Without Borders measure the freedom of media in 180 countries around the world. The index, based on questionnaires sent to 150 correspondents and 18 “partner organizations” around the world, in addition to “journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists”, goes beyond measuring freedom of expression, it also includes other factors such as the transparency of government media regulators, the effectiveness of legislation regulating press freedoms, the concentration of media ownership, favoritism in state subsidies or advertising, and discrimination in access to journalism or journalism training. (photo / Jonut Wikimedia Commons)