Worst country for journalists

[basketcase]

Surprisingly (?) Turkey wins the honour.

ANKARA- Turkey has more jailed reporters than China, Eritrea, Iran or Syria, making it “the world’s biggest prison for journalists,” a leading media watchdog said on Wednesday.

The report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) adds to a growing chorus of criticism from Western governments and rights groups of the EU candidate’s jailing of journalists, most of whom are kept in pre-trial detention.
...
While criticism of Turkey’s poor record on press freedom centres mostly on reporters in jail, journalists still working also complain of government pressure to self censor.

Erdogan and other senior government officials have publicly berated news outlets by name and criticized them for questioning the government, or instructed them on how to cover an issue.

Journalists have been openly fired or resigned under pressure from their employers because of their views, many from news outlets owned by conglomerates wary of rocking the boat.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...rison-for-journalists-is-turkey-says-watchdog

Wonder how that will help their quest to join the EU?



Also from the article, 40,000 people have been killed in the Turkish/Kurdish conflict in the last 30 years.

 

[oldjones]

Surprisingly (?) Turkey wins the honour.




http://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...rison-for-journalists-is-turkey-says-watchdog

Wonder how that will help their quest to join the EU?



Also from the article, 40,000 people have been killed in the Turkish/Kurdish conflict in the last 30 years.

Nice stuff from our NATO ally, and bulwark against oppression in the world. I suspect however that fewer journalists are killed there than in some countries that jail fewer.

 

[groggy]

Nice stuff from our NATO ally, and bulwark against oppression in the world. I suspect however that fewer journalists are killed there than in some countries that jail fewer.

I wonder how a real comparison with China would look, Turkey is closing down on press freedom but at least it was there and may come back.
China?

 

[rld]

I wonder how a real comparison with China would look, Turkey is closing down on press freedom but at least it was there and may come back.
China?

I notice where much smaller Iran scored as well. Also a long term problem.

 

[groggy]

I notice where much smaller Iran scored as well. Also a long term problem.

China at 174, Iran 175.
Turkey at 148.
The US is 47.
Israel 92, Lebanon 93, Palestinian Territories at 153.
Canada at 10.

But that's press freedom, which is probably a much more realistic stat to look at then incarcerated journalists.

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

 

[rld]

China at 174, Iran 175.
Turkey at 148.
The US is 47.
Israel 92, Lebanon 93, Palestinian Territories at 153.
Canada at 10.

But that's press freedom, which is probably a much more realistic stat to look at then incarcerated journalists.

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

You would agree with me that Iran is a much smaller country than China.

And the reporters without borders summary is a subjective ranking. While it may offer great value, it is not a statistic.

 

[groggy]

You would agree with me that Iran is a much smaller country than China.

And the reporters without borders summary is a subjective ranking. While it may offer great value, it is not a statistic.

Uh, yeah, Iran is smaller then China.
Your point?
We are talking press freedom with those rankings, not incarcerated journalists.

Do you have a better source for that information?

 

[shapeup1]

Surprisingly (?) Turkey wins the honour.




http://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...rison-for-journalists-is-turkey-says-watchdog

Wonder how that will help their quest to join the EU?

Also from the article, 40,000 people have been killed in the Turkish/Kurdish conflict in the last 30 years.

LOL they weren't allowed "Youtube" either...continue killing their Kurds and they still deny the Armenian holocust.

 

[rld]

Uh, yeah, Iran is smaller then China.
Your point?
We are talking press freedom with those rankings, not incarcerated journalists.

Do you have a better source for that information?

The original article was about Iran, and used raw numbers.

I trust you now concede that the reporters without borders rankings are not statistics as you wanted people to believe.

Either which way, Iran and China both have longstanding problems with freedom of the press.

 

[groggy]

The original article was about Iran, and used raw numbers.

I trust you now concede that the reporters without borders rankings are not statistics as you wanted people to believe.

Either which way, Iran and China both have longstanding problems with freedom of the press.

Actually, the original post was about Turkey, not Iran.
Please don't try to turn this into another Israel/Iran thread.

But the press freedom index is a much better way to judge countries by, then the numbers of journalists in jail.
That's a valid argument.

 

[basketcase]

I wonder how a real comparison with China would look, Turkey is closing down on press freedom but at least it was there and may come back.
China?

If you bothered looking at the article, you would see that Turkey jails more journalists than China.

 

[groggy]

If you bothered looking at the article, you would see that Turkey jails more journalists than China.

I did read the article, which is why I posted the info on country press freedom rankings.
Seems a better way to judge a country's press then by the number in jail, as I have repeatedly said.

 

[rld]

Actually, the original post was about Turkey, not Iran.
Please don't try to turn this into another Israel/Iran thread.

But the press freedom index is a much better way to judge countries by, then the numbers of journalists in jail.
That's a valid argument.

This has nothing to do with Israel.

But for some reason, you decided to jump right over Iran and go after China.

When in fact Iran is ranked worse than China in both lists. I was just pointing out that for some reason you chose to go farther up the lists to find a country to criticize instead of Turkey.

But no one here believes for a second that you don't have a bias in doing so. And we all kind of chuckle when you suggest we should not turn this into an Israel/Iran thread. The reasons why on both fronts are transparent.

 

[groggy]

This has nothing to do with Israel.

But for some reason, you decided to jump right over Iran and go after China.

When in fact Iran is ranked worse than China in both lists. I was just pointing out that for some reason you chose to go farther up the lists to find a country to criticize instead of Turkey.

But no one here believes for a second that you don't have a bias in doing so. And we all kind of chuckle when you suggest we should not turn this into an Israel/Iran thread. The reasons why on both fronts are transparent.

They are almost identical, China 174 and Iran 175.
I listed China as its been in the news lately for lack of press freedom.
There are some surprises on the list, the US at 47, Israel and Lebanon basically tied (two democracies with similar press freedom and one with much better freedom of religion).
And I'm surprised that Canada is at 10, we have pretty free press but so much of it is owned by so few people that I worry.
Good thing there is still the CBC.

 

[gryfin]

This has nothing to do with Israel.

But for some reason, you decided to jump right over Iran and go after China.

When in fact Iran is ranked worse than China in both lists. I was just pointing out that for some reason you chose to go farther up the lists to find a country to criticize instead of Turkey.

But no one here believes for a second that you don't have a bias in doing so. And we all kind of chuckle when you suggest we should not turn this into an Israel/Iran thread. The reasons why on both fronts are transparent.

Unfortunately, when you talk about the mistreatment of journalists, you have to talk about Israel. And, given, the events of the past while, they'll be dropping down even further in ranking with the murder of Palestinian journalists. Human Rights Watch has investigated the attack on Palestinian media in Gaza and has identified it as a war crime:

"(Gaza City) – Four Israeli attacks on journalists and media facilities in Gaza during the November 2012 fighting violated the laws of war by targeting civilians and civilian objects that were making no apparent contribution to Palestinian military operations.

The attacks killed two Palestinian cameramen, wounded at least 10 media workers, and badly damaged four media offices, as well as the offices of four private companies. One of the attacks killed a two-year-old boy who lived across the street from a targeted building.

The Israeli government asserted that each of the four attacks was on a legitimate military target but provided no specific information to support its claims. After examining the attack sites and interviewing witnesses, Human Rights Watch found no indications that these targets were valid military objectives."

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/20/israelgaza-unlawful-israeli-attacks-palestinian-media