Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual press freedom index this week, which reviews the state of journalism in 180 countries, assessed a record number of 28 countries as \u201cvery bad\u201d in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Lebanon, political pressure over the media \u201cis stronger than ever,\u201d the report added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iraq and Iran are also down by nine and four places, respectively, with Iraq landing at 172nd. Iran remains among the world\u2019s 10 worst countries for press freedom and the worst country in the region at 178th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In North Africa, Tunisia has seen a drastic fall in the index, down to 94th from 73rd, and its classification went from \u201cproblematic\u201d to \u201cdifficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The watchdog described the situations in Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Sudan as \u201cespecially alarming,\u201d saying, \u201cThe situation for the press in North Africa \u2014 excluding Egypt \u2014 has never been so troubling.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Gulf region, the United Arab Emirates sank seven points to 131st from 138th. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, for their parts, upped their rankings by four, nine and one place, respectively. The watchdog ranked Saudi Arabia 166th, Qatar 119th and Bahrain 167th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual press freedom index this week, which reviews the state of journalism in 180 countries, assessed a record number of 28 countries as \u201cvery bad\u201d in 2022. In Lebanon, political pressure over the media \u201cis stronger than ever,\u201d the report added. Iraq and Iran are also down by nine and four places, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[612,474,942,801],"class_list":["post-88572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islam","tag-freedom","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-press"],"yoast_head":"\n