Press Freedom Index: The top 10 worst countries

Syria, Rwanda, and Yemen have fallen to the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said today. The three countries join other single-party dominated governments at the bottom of the annual index, while six democratic Northern European nations tied this year as the best places for media freedom.

3. Turkmenistan

The former Soviet Republic has consistently fallen within the worst three countries worldwide for press freedom.

According to the BBC, "the Turkmen government has an absolute monopoly of the media. The authorities monitor media outlets, control printing presses, block websites, monitor internet use and lay down editorial policies."

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting says "there are no independent media in Turkmenistan. The late president Saparmurat Niazov enforced strict censorship and rigorous control over the state media sector and all who work in it."

Fear of retribution is so great as to hamper the Institute's ability to even train future reporters in the central Asian nation. During a rare journalist training session there in April 2009, for example, "when one of the trainers asked them to put together a fictitious press release on government plans to hold a World Cup football event in Turkmenistan, [the attendees] refused to do so."

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