According to the Freedom of the Press 2011 survey release, Kuwait no longer tops the Arab world in freedom of the press, that position now goes to Lebanon. Previously Kuwait was always on top but this year it dropped from a global position of 115th last year to 124th place in 2011. You can check out the full results and press releases [Here]
Below is the freedom of the press ranking for the Middle East and North Africa:
1- Israel
2- Lebanon
3- Kuwait
4- Algeria
5- Jordan
6- Egypt
7- Qatar
8- Iraq / Morocco
10- Oman / UAE
12- Bahrain
13- Palestine / Saudi Arabia / Yemen
16- Syria
17- Tunisia
18- Iran
19- Libya
33 replies on “Kuwait no longer leader in freedom of the press in the Arab world”
hooray, partially free.
israel number 1?!!!! Mark I think you’re in America’ top 10 involvement list 😛
i don’t think Mark came up with the list 😛 and why not Israel? do you have any data to prove otherwise?
The massacres? the houses that are being destroyed? the reporter that died while covering the events? the European protesters that died because the saw things they can not see?!!! should I go on?
So u were personally there when all that happened? Saw with ur own eyes?
LOL Deqor8 I think your argument about “being there to see it with your own eyes” is a little ridiculous. Eye witness accounts have been happening. And excuse me but as Muslim Arabs its Palestine to us, and not Israel. Why were they ranked as two separate countries? We all know that’s not true.
Moe80s I agree with you, I think that is an American list.
The massacres and the bloodshed is enough to show that israelis are not ones to be all about freedom. Be it freedom of press or otherwise. Any logical person may deduce that from the facts they see.
i’m pretty sure the list represents one’s free speech in their native land and that alone, not a country’s political views or resulting conflicts. And to me as a Muslim American I tend to agree that it is Israel (as does most of the World) but do hope for a swift resolution between the two states soon.
are you serious?! man there is no freedom what so ever there.. it is pretty much clear if any israelly peace keeper tries to protest for palestine they get arrested for disturbing the streets or whatever.. man you have no clue what so ever about politics especially in this region.. As a muslim american?! who cares what you are we are talking in general..
dude just face it … Israel is ranked number 1 … if you don’t like it then that’s your issue .. don’t think they issued this list to please you.
This is freedom of press, all it means is that in Israel newspapers are more free than in Kuwait. It’s true, you can insult leaders in Israel but not in Kuwait or you’ll get fined and shut down.
why bother!!! whatever this won’t change a thing :S
I wonder what caused the drop…
Or, we could say that the press in Lebanon got more independent 🙂
Kudos to both countries 🙂
Qatar at 7 and Aljazeera is the only significant news source there… Makes you think…
I wonder how could we measure the freedom of press accurately in all of these countries let alone comparing it together which ultimately requires one standardised non biased methodology of determining the extent of press freedom.
I am not fully convinced of this list, and will need to study it’s methodology very critically before making any conclusions. These results may very well be incorrect, inaccurate or based on political or religious bias, which are deeply inherent feature of human nature !!
egypt 4??
seriously…
they have different measures. Kuwait was number one with writers without borders (french organization). And, it is expected for Kuwait to drop after all the court drama that the PM issued on people who criticized him last year, Al-Jwaihel, the attack on Fajer Al Saed’s studio, Zaid Al Zaid, Obaid Al Wasmi, and obviously Mark being oppressed over food criticism :p.
Please note that this is just in the middle east and north africa. Compared to the rest of the world, this is still not a good ranking. 😛
i don’t think its really accurate! what are they actually measuring!!
How easy it is to be arrested for being a journalist
screw all media , i don’t believe any of their propaganda including the bin laden scam , screw fox , bbc and al jazeera
I second that 😛
so let me get this right..there are 195 recognised countries in the world and Kuwait is 124th…..
……that is not good reason to celebrate, not even that close to being in the top half…..sort it out.
This is old list now with all the revolutions going around. At the moment Egypt and Tunisia have completely free press. Also the liberated parts of Libya and soon Syria.
isreal is considered an arab country?
it says ‘Below is the freedom of the press ranking for the Middle East and North Africa’ not arab countries.
and yeah with all thats happened recently im not the least surprised, and like in other lists instead of ascending we slowly but painfully descend.
Sooli- the list is for Middle East and North America
i just zoomed in one the map, from afar it looked like we went all the way down to not free(blue), but its nice to know we’re still partly free(yellow), offcourse its nothing to be proud of that our freedom of press declined but still…
Lebanon is not a proper country; it’s a banana republic with no real government in charge. Therefore, Kuwait is still number two after Israel.
That’s like a tallest midget contest
hahaha
Well put!
@GWB: The stupidity in your post exceeds my former expectations of what a person can achieve. I salute you.
Palestine not israel..coke not pepsi
i hope this measurement represents an index of how freely govt agencies can manipulate the press, otherwise this index is grossly inaccurate, you dont need stats to prove that, just an awake mind.