RSF's 2013 report said the political importance of Turkey has grown even higher because of the armed conflict in neighboring Syria but the country has again fallen in the index -- this time by six notches compared to the 2011-2012 index, where Turkey was ranked 148th. The report called Turkey the “world's biggest prison for journalists,” meaning it currently has the highest number imprisoned, especially those who express views critical of the authorities on the Kurdish issue.
This year's index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. The rankings suggest that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom.
When looking at the index, RSF states that it is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that permit no civil liberties, again occupy the last three places. “This year, they are immediately preceded at the bottom by Syria, Iran and China, three countries that seem to have lost contact with reality as they have been sucked into an insane spiral of terror, and by Bahrain and Vietnam, quintessential oppressive regimes. Other countries such as Uganda and Belarus have also become much more repressive,” report added.