PARIS, Jan 26, (KUNA): Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has ranked Kuwait the best Arab country in terms of press freedom in 2011.
In its annual press freedom index for 2011, released here on Wednesday, the organization said Kuwait rating rose nine places, when compared to 2010, to the 78th position among the world countries.
Kuwait came 15 places above the closest Arab country, namely Lebanon which ranked 93rd, while Lebanon ranked ahead of Kuwait in the 2010 index.
The other Gulf countries had variant rankings with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) retreating by 25 places to the 112th position, Qatar standing at 114th place, Oman — 119th, Saudi Arabia — 158th, and Bahrain 173th place.
Tunisia’s rating rose 30 places to 134 while Egypt retreated 39 places to the 166th position.
Syria’s ranking continued its downward trend to the 176th position, just above the worst rankings of Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Finland maintained top ranking followed by Norway, Estonia, Holland, Austria, Iceland, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Cape Verdi and Canada.
The United States lost 27 places to the 47th position due to the arrest of large numbers of reporters who were covering the protests of Occupy Wall St. movement last year.
Germany ranked 18th, Britain 28th, France 38th, Spain 39th and Italy 61st.
“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, “ the RWB report noted.