Austin Bay Blog

In the last three months I’ve posted a couple of Radio Free Europe commentaries. One generated a lot of email via my Creators Syndicate email address. RFE’s website is www.rferl.org (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).

Christopher Walker (director of information at Freedom House) has an essay in this morning’s RFE/RL newsletter. The essay doesn’t appear on the RFE website– I just checked. It may be on the site later today. This is jumping ahead, but Walker’s essay indicates Ukraine’s Orange Revolution is continuing, with press liberalization pacing political reform.

Here’s Walker’s lede and initial assessment of the press freedom in the former Soviet Union:

World Press Freedom Day, marked on 3 May, offers an opportunity to take stock of the challenges individual journalists and news organizations face in fulfilling their professional duties. Dramatically different stories have emerged in countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) and the wider geographic swath to the west and south that represented the communist world during the Cold War. The overall picture for independent media in the 12 countries of the non-Baltic FSU is grim. Journalists face enormous obstacles in settings where authorities have denied an enabling environment for independent journalism and the free flow of information. Despite the considerable attention and resources devoted to the issue of press freedom, the overall trend in recent years in the FSU has been toward even tighter control by the authorities. Ten of the 12 non-Baltic FSU countries are ranked “Not Free” in the 2005 edition of Freedom House’s “Freedom of the Press” survey.

The Freedom House study rates the world (see the top 25 and the bottom dwellers listed below Walker’s essay).

Walker says Freedom House rates Turkmenistan as “the most repressive” (of the former Soviet states).

Here’s how he describes the Turkmen government’s “isolation” strategy. Keep in mind the earlier comment about stopping or thwarting independent journalists (an echo of pressthink’s “stand along journalist”?).

“The Turkmen authorities seem determined to demolish any remaining vestiges of contact with the outside world from a country that is already severely isolated. A recently issued Niyazov decree forbids foreign postal services from delivering to Turkmenistan. This measure means, among other things, that foreign newspapers and magazines are effectively barred from entering the country.”

That’s an old method– halt the in-flow of “free paper.” As for Internet and electronic penetration? See my comment below addressing Cuba and North Korea.

Belarus and Uzbekistan are also “dreadful.”

Who’s improving?
From Walker’s essay:

The countries that have enjoyed recent political change are worthy of attention over the coming cycle. While Ukraine and Georgia remain in the early stages of their political transition, the rotation of power in those countries brought with them changes in the media landscape. As a result of this opening, Ukraine moved from the “Not Free” to “Partly Free” category. These two countries — as well as Kyrgyzstan — have an opportunity to build on the nascent changes to create the sort of enabling environment for independent media that could be a model for others in the region, whose press freedom performance is so woefully deficient.

Follow this link to read Freedom House’s global press survey.

Here’s Freedom House’s 25 Most Free. Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden tie for 1st place. It’s hard to believe Australia comes in 18th– Tim Blair is the free-est press on the Internet.

Rank Country
1 st
Denmark
Iceland
Sweden

4 th
Belgium
Finland
Norway
Switzerland

8th
New Zealand

9 th
Palau
St. Lucia

11th
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Marshall Islands
The Netherlands

15th
Andorra
Monaco
United States

18th
Australia
Bahamas
Portugal
San Marino
St. Vincent & Grenadines

23 rd
Canada
Malta

25 th
Germany
Grenada
Ireland

And down at the bottom, places 173rd through 193rd:

173rd
China
Congo (Kinshasa) [DRC]
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Syria
Tunisia

179th
Laos
Rwanda
Vietnam

182nd
Belarus
Uzbekistan

184th
Sudan
185th
Israeli Administered
Territories/Palestinian Authority

186th
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Zimbabwe

189th
Libya
190th
Burma
Turkmenistan
192nd
Cuba
193rd
North Korea

Ah yes, North Korea and Cuba– where the secret police cherish Stalin’s memory and still employ his methods. The bottom dwellers aren;t a surprise. China tying with Saudi Arabia and the DRC is provocative– two “closed” societies (one notionally Communist, the other harshly theocratic) tying with a “chaotic” failed state.

Radio beats information isolation strategies– as long as the listener has batteries or electricity or a “crank” ( ie, a radio with its own generator– I’ve seen many of those in east Africa). The Internet can open the world, but reliable Internet connections demand reliable electricity. The lights flicker in Cuba. There are no lights in North Korea. North Korea’s population is literally and figuratively “in the dark.”