Freedom House classifies the Ukrainian media as Partly Free
Freedom House has published its annual report in advance of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. Its press release points to global decline as far as press freedom is concerned in 2006, and speaks of “particularly troubling trends evident in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Latin America”.
Freedom House also warns “of a growing effort to place restrictions on internet freedom by censoring, harassing, or shutting down sites that provide alternate sources of political commentary”.
The media in 10 former Soviet republics are rated as Not Free. Ukraine and Georgia both receive ratings of Partly Free, while the Baltic Republics are deemed Free.
Russia is placed near the end, in 165th place. “Russias worsening score reflected negative developments in the legal sphere coupled with heightened impunity, epitomized by the lack of prosecutions of increasingly frequent crimes and attacks against journalists.”
The press release shamelessly hacked about above can (and should!) be found in full at: http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=494