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Jamaica has the highest ranking for press freedom in western hemisphere
Jamaica has the highest ranking for press freedom in the Western Hemisphere, according to the 2013 World Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders.
Jamaica was ranked 13th overall in the world, ousting Canada which is now ranked 20th as the region’s leader for press freedom.
Jamaica was just ahead of Switzerland on the list, and just below Austria.
The report reflects a series of criteria, from legislation to violence against journalists and the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said political tension and judicial harassment have led to several Caribbean countries receiving low grades on its global press freedom index.
Trinidad & Tobago, which was ranked 44th, has still “not stopped its illegal monitoring of journalists’ phone calls and attempts to identify their sources although it promised to stop in 2010.
In Suriname, which dropped nine places to 31st , Reporters Without Borders said “often stormy relations between President Desi Bouterse and many journalists are unlikely to improve after the passage of an amnesty law for the murders of around 15 government opponents, including five journalists, three decades ago.
The seven-member Organization of East Caribbean States (OECS) fell eight places to 34th because of “often direct pressure from the political authorities on news media and the failure to move ahead with the decriminalization of defamation.
Haiti was ranked fourth in the Caribbean for press freedom; the report said the situation “is still largely unchanged although some journalists have accused President Michel Martelly of hostility towards them.”
On Guyana, the report said the country’s ranking “continues to suffer from the state’s monopoly of radio broadcasting.”
The Dominican Republic rose 15 places to 80th because of “a decline in violence and journalists and legal proceedings that threaten freedom of information.”
Barbados was not included in the report.
The full report is available here…