Poland Ranked #18 for Freedom of the Press
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières), a France-based non-governmental organization which promotes freedom of information and the press, has ranked Poland #18 out of 180 countries in their 2015 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 12.71.
Northern Europe dominates the top of the list (Finland’s score: 7.52), while the bottom is largely populated by communist and African regimes (Eritrea, the lowest, scores 84.86).
This marks a Polish advance by one position over last year, when it was #19. It’s also Poland’s highest rank since the first report in 2002, when it was #29. (The low point was 2006, when it was ranked #58.)
However, in its 2015 paper, Reporters Without Borders was critical of some actions against the Polish press in 2014, such as the arrest of two journalists among protests outside the State Electoral Commission headquarters (they were later acquitted) and the raid by police on the offices of the weekly magazine Wprost, which published the secret conversation between the interior minister and central bank governor which began a major political controversy last year.
Some other countries on the list:
- Germany (#12)
- The United Kingdom (#34)
- France (#38)
- The United States (#49)
- Ukraine (#129)
- Russia (#152)
- North Korea (#179)
You can see the full list with links to the individual reports here.