Press freedom and corruption

Image courtesy of the World Association of Newspapers and News PublishersToday is Press Freedom Day, when the world celebrates the virtues of a free press and remembers that in so many countries, press freedom is just a dream.

Corruption needs dark corners to flourish. So as you’d expect, countries with the most press freedom tend to have the lowest levels of perceived graft. And countries where press freedom doesn’t exist are mired in corruption.

Here are the top and bottom ten countries on the press freedom index, with their corruption perceptions index rank in parentheses:

1     Finland (1)
2     Netherlands (9)
3     Norway (7)
4     Luxembourg (12)
5     Andorra (not ranked)
6     Denmark (1)
7     Liechtenstein (not ranked)
8     New Zealand (1)
9     Iceland (11)
10   Sweden (4)

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170     Sudan (173)
171     Cuba (58)
172     Vietnam (123)
173     China (80)
174     Iran (133)
175     Somalia (174)
176     Syria (144)
177     Turkmenistan (170)
178     North Korea (174)
179     Eritrea (150)

The full Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders is here.

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Note: May 3 was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day by the UN General Assembly in 1993.