Lebanon ranks 66th globally, second in Arab world in press freedom

In its annual survey on press freedoms in 173 countries, international organization Reporters Without Borders ranked Lebanon in 66th place worldwide and 3rd among 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Lebanon came in 98th place globally and 5th regionally in the previous survey. The index measures the level of freedom that journalists and the media have in each country and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom is respected. The survey reflects press freedom in each country based on events between September 2007 and September 2008. The index calculation was based on answers to a questionnaire that asked for details of direct attacks on journalists and the media such as threats, censorship, confiscation, searches and pressure.

It also asked about the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for such violations. The questionnaire recorded the legal environment for the media and the behavior of the state towards the local and foreign press. Reporters Without Borders assigns index scores in ascending order, the lower the score the higher is press freedom in a given country.

Globally, Lebanon tied with Botswana, ranked immediately ahead of Argentina, the UAE and Benin, and came behind El Salvador, Burkina Faso and Serbia. Lebanon received a score of 14 points in the 2008 survey, better than the Arab and MENA averages of 40.36 points and 40.80 points, respectively, and up from 28.75 points in 2007.

Reporters Without Borders said Lebanon rose by 30 places this year, as no journalist was on the list of victims of this year’s bombings, while the temporary forced closure of certain media outlets left no victims and trigged a wave of indignation in Lebanese society. Israel was perceived as the country with the higher level of press freedom in the MENA region, coming in 46th place worldwide,but it drops to 149th place in the world for its treatment of journalists in the Palestinian territories.