Press freedom decreases
Press freedom around the world has declined for the eighth straight year, a US watchdog warns. Freedom House released an annual survey on Thursday (29 April 2010) in which it claims that only one in six people in the world live in countries with a free press.
South Asia was the only region where the watchdog observed an improvement in press freedom in 2009. Political turmoil and drug violence in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East have caused global press freedom to deteriorate to its worst level in the past 14 years, the report claims.
The survey also claims that authoritarian regimes have intensified their already strong grip on media. Myanmar, Eritrea and Iran were among the countries rated as having minimal or non-existent media freedom.