EBRD blog » Telecoms, informatics & media http://www.ebrdblog.com/wordpress European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:34:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Press freedom slides in eastern Europe http://www.ebrdblog.com/wordpress/2009/10/press-freedom-slides-in-eastern-europe/ http://www.ebrdblog.com/wordpress/2009/10/press-freedom-slides-in-eastern-europe/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:04:47 +0000 Jane Ross Head of Publications and Web http://www.ebrdblog.com/?p=718 Press freedom has declined over the past year in the majority of countries where the EBRD invests, according to the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB). The media monitor’s annual Press Freedom Index, published last week, also showed that …

]]> Press freedom has declined over the past year in the majority of countries where the EBRD invests, according to the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB). The media monitor’s annual Press Freedom Index, published last week, also showed that standards had slipped generally in many European countries which should, it claimed, be setting an example for newer democracies.

Of the EBRD’s 29 countries of operations, only nine showed an improvement in their performance in the 2009 Index. Commenting on this year’s findings from RWB, EBRD Communications Director Reijo Kemppinen said: “Independent journalism and freedom of the press are an integral part of the process of economic and political transformation that the EBRD was founded to promote. The Bank should support the efforts of organisations that help to develop an independent press in the countries where it invests.”

The RWB report states that indicators pointed to a deterioration of press freedom in almost all of the former Soviet republics except Georgia (81st) and, to a lesser extent, Belarus (151st), whose government had initiated a cautious and so far limited improvement in its relations with the press as part of a renewed dialogue with the EU.

Read the whole Press Freedom Index 2009 on the Reporters Without Borders web site.

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