Israel Drops to the 112th Country on the Press Freedom Index

Israel has dropped from 92nd place on the Reporters without Borders’ press freedom index in 2012 to 112th place in 2013 out of 179 countries.

The organization points out that Israel’s drop in rank is due to its performance during its last violent attack, dubbed ‘Operation Pillar of Cloud’, against the Gaza Strip in November 2012. During the attack, the IOF launched a deliberate assault on journalists and media buildings associated with Hamas, in addition to Israel’s continuous arrests of Palestinian reporters.

As for inside Israel, the organization states that, “Journalists have full freedom of expression; however military censorship still poses a structural problem.”

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In this context, “Haaretz” mentioned that the organization differentiates between “Israel within the Green Line” and its activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of 1967. Although “Israel within the Green Line” was ranked 40, it was ranked 150 outside the Green Line. So, the current ranking is a combination of both.

It is also worth mentioning that in the wake of the violent war on the Gaza Strip in 2008/2009, Israel also dropped to 96th place out of 176 countries.

The organization ranked Palestine 146th. Finland was ranked number 1, followed by Holland, Norway, and Luxemburg. On the bottom of the list were Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea, and Eritrea.