Here is another rank list out in the press. This time this is on the freedom of the press. The Reporters sans frontieres’ Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2006, says that India is ranked 105 among 168 countries in the list.
These rankings mostly ignore the ground realities and the levels of conflict in a country and clinch criticism most of the time.
Neha has written the detail of the report here that is mainly based on the incidents between 1 September 2005 and 1 September 2006. The ranking report does not look at human rights violations but at just press freedom violations in different countries.
She writes as
I wonder if there is a similar index for comparing Press Freedom in different states and regions. It would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between degree of economic freedom, level of conflict and freedom of press. Further, one wonders how many instances of violation actually get reported in many parts of India. Plus, can one actually measure arm-twisting of the Media? What about instances of corruption within Media at the level of institutions, where decisions are taken about not reporting events, manipulating reports etc. and this knowledge may never reach the public domain anyway.
