Guyana remained ranked at 58 on the Press Freedom Index 2011-2012, the Reporters Without Borders organisation said in its tenth annual report, while pointing out that radio broadcasting remained a monopoly.
The report, released this week, likened conditions in Guyana to those in Trinidad and Tobago, where the ranking had slid to 50; down 20 places from the previous year as a result of a scandal involving spying on journalists, as well as moves to boycott radio and television stations and procedural abuses.
The Guyana government had announced earlier this month that it was liberalizing radio by affording licences to several private persons. However, observers have said that the issuance of licences seemed to be selective.
The reporting period for the Press Freedom Index ran from 1 December 2010 to 30 November 2011.
Meanwhile, the report said the year just past was one that saw many changes – both positive and negative.
“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world…
“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them,” the report said.
Turkmenistan (177), North Korea (178) and Eritrea (179) occupied the bottom three places on the index. Finland (1), Norway (1) and Estonia (3) took the three top spots.
