The RSF Index gives every country a score, based on the degree of freedom for journalists and media organisations. The best possible score would be zero, and a few European countries approach this. Tied at the top, with a score of 0.75 are Iceland and Norway.
Up until this year, Mozambique's ranking was on the rise. In 2004, Mozambique was ranked 64th out of 167. In the 2005 index, Mozambique was ranked 49th, and in 2006 it rose to 45th out of 168, with a score of 11.5 - ahead of the United States, which was ranked at number 53.
But this year Mozambique has fallen to 73rd position, with a score of 23. RSF explains some changes in its rankings: thus Holland fell from joint first position in 2006, to 12 this year because two journalists of the paper "Telegraaf" were detained for two days for refusing to reveal their sources.
Benin and Mali, ranked 23 and 35 last year, have fallen to places 53 and 52 because journalists in these two countries were jailed on charges of defamation or insulting the president.
But Mozambique is among the countries for which no explanation is given for the change in ranking. However, it is not too difficult to guess - although there were no changes in media law between 2006 and 2007, there were several instances of court interference in the press.
The most serious was the seizure, ordered by the Maputo City Court at the end of 2006, of tens of thousands of dollars worth of property belonging to the independent media group SOICO, in order to compensate a person who was never employed by SOICO.
Although the equipment was returned within a few days, the court case, which could cost SOICO large sums of money, is dragging on.
Court decisions, arising out of libel suits, also threatened the very existence of two small provincial papers, "Horizonte" in Cabo Delgado, and "Faisca" in Niassa - the court seized most of "Faisca"'s equipment.
Also counting against Mozambique may have been the failure of the country's parliament to pass freedom of information legislation, although a draft bill on the matter was presented by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) two years ago.
RSF is also hostile to the idea of licensing journalists, and proposed amendments to the 1991 press law seek to introduce a compulsory professional licence, without which journalists would not be allowed to practice. This has not yet become law, but the very fact that such amendments have been seriously proposed may have damaged Mozambique's standing (even though the National Union of Journalists and MISA-Mozambique support licensing).
There seems no limit to how bad a score can get. The country at the bottom of the list, at number 169, is Eritrea, with a score of 114.75. Eritrea managed the extraordinary feat of a worse score than the paranoid dictatorship in North Korea (ranked 168, with a score of 108.75).
"Eritrea deserves to be at the bottom", comments RSF. "The privately-owned press has been banished by the authoritarian President, Isaias Afeworki and the few journalists who dare criticise the regime are thrown in prison. We know that four of them have died in detention and we have every reason to fear that others will suffer the same fate".
Among African countries, the highest ranked are Mauritius and Namibia (tying at 25), followed by Ghana (29), South Africa (43), and Cape Verde (45).
These countries all do better than the United States, which is ranked 48. RSF remarks that there were "slightly fewer press freedom violations" in the US than in the previous year. Among th matters dragging the US down in the rankings is the detention of a Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, who worked for the Al-Jazeera TV channel, at the US military base of Guantanamo Bay since June 2002.
The index is based on events between 1 September 2006 and 1 September 2007. RSF drew up a questionnaire with 50 criteria - covering such matters as the murder, imprisonment, harassment or deportation of journalists, threats against the media, the ability of the media to investigate, the level of censorship or self-censorship, suppression of news, and any financial pressure on the media.
The questionnaire was sent to RSF's partner organisations (15 other freedom of expression groups across the globe), to its 130 correspondents, and to a variety of other journalists, researchers and human rights activists. A country is only included in the index when RSF receives completed questionnaires from several independent sources.
SOURCE: AIM
