WHERE IS YOUR COUNTRY, OR REGION IN FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 2007?

 Freedom is possible only in a democratic political system in which governments are accountable to their own people, the rule of law prevails, and freedom of expression, association and belief are guaranteed. This can only be achievable where freedom of the press is found. Read this report to know whether you are in a country that allows the freedom of the press in order to enjoy the above.

Out of 195 countries and territories in the world assessed, 74 countries (38 per cent) were rated Free, 58 (30 percent) were rated Partly Free, and 63 (32 percent) were rated Not Free. This shows a global picture of the situation of freedom of the press in world. This represented a modest improvement over the 2005 assessment in which: 73 Free countries, 54 Partly Free, and 67 Not Free countries. However the findings of the 2006 represents a negative shift from the survey results of five years ago, which was the last recent high point of press freedom.

Read to know where your country or region falls in terms of how free your media is or how suppressed it is. This is an authentic survey conducted by Freedom House, a reputable international media NGO, based in New Yoke the USA.

Mali tops Africa as one of the countries with a FREE media status; she is followed by Ghana, Mouritius, South Africa, Cape Verde, Benin, Namibia, and Sao Tome & Principe. They are among 74 countries with similar records. The world list is toped by Finland and Iceland with 9 points each. These countries were followed by Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

 The Gambia is once again rated as NOT FREE, among 21 other Sub-Saharan states which included states like Burundi, Angola, Chad, and Liberia. These countries are among other 63 countries worldwide, in a total of 195 countries in the world where a survey is conducted. The Gambia stands number 77 out of the 195 states that do not have a free press.

The Gambia like others who where rated NOT FREE, has a hostile media environment, we have seen in the past crackdown on journalists and in some cases mediums have been closed down without court orders. Journalists have been detained beyond the 72 hours limits and in most of those cases there were no charges against those detained journalists.

Apart from the above cases cited, there is this unfinished case of the killing of Deyda Hydara. 

The legal environment for the Gambia is one yet to be desire. The two laws that are in place is no way that can guarantee us a place in a FREE MEDIA state, and these are the Newspaper Amendment Act of 2004, and the Newspaper Registration Act of 2004. These laws need to be taken out of our books of laws if we are to make any head way for a FREE MEDIA state.

 According to the ratings by Freedom House Gambia score a total of 77 points, 24 for the legal environment, 33 for political environment, and 20 for economic environment. This placed her 77 out of 195 countries. The Gambia’s status has been one of NOT FREE since 2002. with 66, in 2002, 65 in 2003, 63 in 2004, 72 in 2005, 73 in 2006 and 77 in 2007.

The five worst –rated countries continue to be Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, and Turkmenistan., in these states independence, media are either non inexistence or barely able to operate, the press acts as a mouthpiece of the governing regime, and citizen’s access to unbiased information is severely changed from 2005-6, reflecting an extreme level of repression and stagnation of the media.

How ever on the contrast, Western Europe continue to boast the highest level of press freedom world wide; in 2006, 24 countries(96 percent) were rated FREE and 1 (4 percent) was rated Partly Free, and there were no NOT FREE in the region.

In the Sub- Saharan Africa, overall 8 countries (17 percent) were rated Free, 19 (39 per cent) were rated Partly Free, and 21 (44 per cent) remained Not Free. Press freedom conditions continued to be dire in Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe, where authoritarian governments use legal pressure, imprisonment, and other forms of harassments to sharply curtail the ability of independent media outlets to report freely. All three countries continue to rank in the bottom 10 performers worldwide.

 In the Americas, 17 countries (48 percent) were Free, 16 (46 percent) were rated Partly Free, and 2 (6 percent) were rated Not Free in 2006. Just under half the countries in the region have media that remain classified as Free, although this includes the Caribbean, whose countries generally have very open media environments, offsetting the les rosy picture in Central and South America.

The Asia –Pacific region as a whole exhibited a relatively high level of press freedom, with 16 countries (40 percent) rated Free, 10 (25 percent) Partly Free, and 14 (35 percent) rated Not Free.

Central and Eastern Europe / Former Soviet Union, for the combined CEE/FSU region 8 countries (28 percent) out of a new total of 28 countries, after Montenegro’s independence- remain classified as Free.  10 (36 percent) are rated Partly Free, and 10 (36 percent) are classified as Not Free

Middle East and North Africa region continued to show the lowest regional rating , with just 1 country (5percent) rated Free, 2 (11 percent) rated Partly Free, and 16 (84 percent) rated Not Free in 2006.During the year the average region wide score declined , as did the average score in the political subcategory.

These conclusions are reached through an examination of the level of press freedom in each country which currently comprises 23 methodology questions divided into three broad categories: the legal environment, the political environment, and economic environment. For each methodology question, a lower number of points are allotted for a freer situation, while a higher number of points are allotted for a less free environment.

The legal environment category encompasses an examination of both the laws and regulations that could influence media content and the government’s inclination to use these laws and legal institutions to restrict the media’s ability to operate. An assessment of a positive impacts of legal   and constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression; the potential negative aspects of security legislations, the penal code, and other criminal statutes; penalties for libel and defamation; the existence  of an ability to use freedom of information legislation; independence of the judiciary and of official media regulatory bodies ; registration requirements for both media outlets and journalists; and the ability of journalists’ groups to operate freely.

Under the political environment category, in order for the Freedom House global surveyors to reach   a conclusion an evaluation to a degree of political control over the content of news media is established first. Issues to be examined include the editorial independence of both state owned and privately owned media; access to information and sources; official censorship; and self censorship; the vibrancy of the media and the diversity of the new available; the ability of both foreign and local reporters to cover the news freely and without harassment; and the intimidation of journalists   by the state or other actors, including arbitrary detention and imprisonment, violent assaults, and other threats.

The third and the final category is the economic environment. This category examines the economic environment for the media. It includes the structure of media ownership; transparency and concentration of ownership; the cost of establishing media as well as of production and distribution; selective withholding of advertising or subsidies by state or other actors; impacts of corruption and bribery on content; and the extent to which the economic situation in the a country impacts the development and sustainability of the media.

We will bring you detail reports on each country under the three categories: FREE, PARTLT FREE and NOT FREE.