Uganda 7th In Press Freedom

Oct 25, 2002

Uganda has been ranked the 7th most press free country in Africa and the 52nd of 139 countries surveyed worldwide.

By Patrick Luganda
Uganda has been ranked the 7th most press free country in Africa and the 52nd of 139 countries surveyed worldwide.

The first Worldwide Press Freedom Index covering September 2001 to October 2002, released by Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), put Benin at the top of the list in Africa. Benin is locked in the 21st slot globally with the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

However, it is ranked 21st worldwide, followed by South Africa (26th), Namibia (31st), Mali (43rd), Senegal (47th), Nigeria (49th), Uganda (52nd) and Niger (53rd).

Forty-seven African countries were included in the 139 countries worldwide.

The US may be a superpower but in terms of press freedom, it is ranked 17th below Costa Rica while Japan ties in 26th position with South Africa and Austria.

“This index measures the amount of freedom journalists and the media have in each country and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom is respected. The countries included in the index are those about which RSF received completed questionnaires from several independent sources,” RSF said in a statement
Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied in the first position. Canada, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark are in the first 10.

The worst ranked countries are all in Asia with North Korea tailing at 139, China at 138 and Burma at 137.
Ends

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});