Freedom of the press as in 2009,Italy is in the 49th place with Burkina Faso

" A another year as partially free country. In its annual ranking of the Reporters Without Borders Italy holds the 49th place on a par with Burkina Faso and a slight advantage with El Salvador. The grounds stated in the report, published today, says: "There has been no progress in several countries where RSF highlighted problems. Among these, especially, France and Italy, where the events of last year - violations of the protection of journalists' sources, the continued concentration of media ownership, demonstrations of contempt and impatience on the part of government officials against journalists and of their work, court summonses - have confirmed their inability to reverse this trend.

"It's disturbing to see that many EU member states continue to fall in the standings - said today, Jean-Francois Julliard, Secretary General of RSF - If you are not running together, the EU risks losing its position as world leader respect for human rights. Should this happen, how could it be convincing when asked to authoritarian regimes improvements in human rights? There is urgent need for European countries to recover exemplary behavior. "

Northern Europe in the lead - in the first place, tied, are Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. All have had this honor since the ranking was created nine years ago, except in 2006 (Norway) and 2009 (Iceland). These six countries where respect for journalists in general and for the work of the media is considered an untouchable value as well as the need to protect against judicial abuses.

Ten countries in which journalists to be dangerous - until 2009, in the eight previous editions of the charts, the last three rankings were always occupied by Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. This year, the "group of the worst" has expanded to ten countries, characterized by harassment of the media and a complete lack of news and information: in addition to three already mentioned, Laos, Rwanda, Yemen, China, Sudan, Syria, Burma and Iran. In countries openly at war or where there are internal conflicts, like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico, "a culture of violence and impunity - RSF says the press release of the accompanying charts - makes printing the preferred target." Journalists are often confiscated. Just think Taponier and Stéphane Hervé Ghesquière, French TV journalists held hostage in Afghanistan for 300 days.

Economic growth does not mean freedom of the press - The countries of the so-called "BRIC" - Brazil, Russia, India and China - have had a phase of economic development is quite similar, but differences in the field of press freedom in 2010 are remarkable. Thanks to positive changes in legislation, Brazil (58 °) increased by 12 positions from last year, while India (122 °) decreased by 17. Russia is ranked very low, at 140 th place. The case of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist murdered on October 7, 2006 in front of his home, which has had great resonance in Europe, is not an isolated case. On 19 January last year Baburova Anastasia, 25 year-old Russian journalist who wrote in the same journal of Politkovskaya, was killed in downtown Moscow with a gunshot wound to the neck. Finally, China, as evidenced by the reactions to the Nobel Prize awarded to Liu Xiabo, sentenced to 11 years in prison continues to censor and imprison dissidents. The only positive views of China, a very active and lively blogosphere continues, with great effort, to "pierce" the wall of censorship.