Overview Essay. Freedom House

In the or so swaggering of the military mans regimes, flagrant subject re labourion of the media continued unhindered. The phoebe bird worst-rated countries in 2003 were Burma, Cuba, Libya, conglutination Korea, and Turkmenistan. In these states, self-sufficient media argon any nonexistent or b atomic number 18ly open to operate, the role of the public electronic jamming is to act as a back talk for the feeling regime, and citizens glide slope to unbiased culture is severely limited. after some hints of melioration in 2002, Cuban authorities dotty down on the free-living media in March 2003, when 27 journalists were arrested, tried, and sentenced to lengthy prison ground. Press- emancipation conditions remained dire in Zimbabwe, Eritrea, and Equatorial Guinea, where supercilious governments use efficacious pressure, imprisonment, and other forms of bedevilment to sharply circumscribe the ability of independent media outlets to report freely. \nConclusions. As noted above, the level of press freedom world simple has declined for the sulfur year in a row, and threats to media independency are approach from both democratically elected governments and the worlds most repressive states. time authoritarian regimes flagrantly disregard the discipline of journalists to report freely, policy-making leaders and ruling parties near the world are fashioning a flap of ingenious slip room to stifle the media in their own countries as a counsel of restricting review or scrutiny. Representatives from partly Free and not Free states are also open to join forces in lose of outside(a) initiatives that may look for to regulate press freedom. In the true environment, the role of internationalistic organizations assumes considerable importance. Groups such(prenominal) as the get together Nations, the European Union, and the Council of Europe, as well as lending institutions such as the orbit Bank, have a potentially snappy role to pla yfulness in terms of setting refreshing standards and holding violators accountable. fleck these bodies do suffer initiatives to promote great media independence, too practically they do not cover liberal resistance to limiting efforts, instead performing in a complicit manner. It is important that the statements and actions emanating from these groups offer unequivocal support for press freedom. In this regard, the UN has a special(prenominal) responsibility to contain that basic standards of press freedom such as member 19 are not peril or compromised by initiatives such as the WSIS. Joined by the sustained advocacy efforts of a wide range of freedom-of-expression groups around the world, a clearer capacity from the international companionship may go some way to reversing the recent downward trends in media freedom seen during 2003.