Political meddling hits French press

FRANCE has been ranked only 43rd in the world press freedom index – because of "political interference".

It is a drop of eight places in a year – but France has fallen 32 places from 11th since the index was started by Reporters Sans Frontieres in 2002.

The UK is ranked joint 20th, alongside the US and Luxembourg; while Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden share first place. Eritrea was last, in 175th spot, trailing North Korea and China.

Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said: "It is disturbing to see European democracies such as France, Italy (49th) and Slovakia (44th down from 7th) fall steadily in the rankings year after year.

"Europe should be setting an example as regards civil liberties. How can you condemn human rights violations abroad if you do not behave irreproachably at home?"

France fell eight points because of judicial investigations and arrests of journalists and raids on news media, and also because of meddling in the media by politicians, including President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Julliard said they had been particularly hard on France because it is a leading member of the EU and should behave scrupulously towards the press.

Press freedom has been worsening for years, with growing pressure on journalists to reveal sources and planned law changes to cut freedom.

Israel's ranking also plunged 47 places in the index to 93rd as a result of its attacks against the Gaza Strip this year. It has now lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), Lebanon (61st) and United Arab Emirates (86th).

To view the classifications, click here