- Saudi Arabia and Syria made the ‘Worst of the Worst’ list. (Bahrain downgraded near the bottom of the list too.)
- Algeria was upgraded to “Partly Free” (barely)
- Tunisia and Lebanon tied with a score of ’53’ as “Partly Free” — (Second place winners? See MENA rankings below…)
- Turkey downgraded to “Not Free” (dramatic drop from 2013)
- Israel upgraded to ‘Free’ (They crossed the threshhold into “Free” by improving from a score of ’31’ in 2013 to ’30’ in 2014.)
PITAPOLICY focused on Tunisia’s political and media environment, which remained in transition in 2013. Investigative journalism probed into judicial proceedings, civil society, and corruption. For specifics, feel free to contact us at qayyum at pitapolicyconsulting dot com.
Check out Freedom House’s Factsheet in Arabic: Overview Fact Sheet – Arabic(1)
Country Score 2014 Rating 2014 Score 2013 Rating 2013 Change ’13-’14
Country Rank Score 2014 Score 2013
Israel 62nd 30 F 31 PF 1
Lebanon 112th 53 PF 53 PF -2
Tunisia 112th 53 PF 52 PF -5
Kuwait 127th 59 PF 59 PF 0
Algeria 127th 59 PF 61 NF 1
Libya 134th 62 NF 59 PF 0
Turkey 134th 62 NF 56 PF -9
*Pakistan 141st 64 NF
*Afghanistan 147th 66 NF
Morocco 147th 66 NF 66 NF 0
Qatar 152nd 68 NF 67 NF -1
Egypt 155th 68 NF 62 NF -6
Iraq 157th 69 NF 67 NF -2
Jordan 155th 68 NF 63 NF -5
Oman 161st 71 NF 71 NF 0
United Arab
Emirates 167th 76 NF 74 NF -3
Yemen 167th 76 NF 79 NF 2
Saudi
Arabia 181st 83NF 84 NF +1
West Bank
and Gaza 179th 82 NF 84 NF -2
Bahrain 188th 87 NF 86 NF -1
Syria 189th 89 NF 88 NF -1
Iran 190th 90 NF 92 NF
Can’t Forget About Egypt
Egypt has earned a “Not Free” status since Hosni Mubarak’s rule. In that time, their “civil liberties” score improved because of more judicial protections. However, political rights hovered towards ‘6’ out of ‘7’ points–towards the worse end of the spectrum. Egypt’s 2014 score for overall political and civil liberties worsened from ’62’ to ’68’. Ironically, May 3rd also marked Egypt’s first trial day for the Al Jazeera trio of journalists imprisoned for reporting on Egypt’s political transition. The Egyptian judge wished them a “Happy Press Freedom Day” right before refusing their bail.
Reporters Without Borders Lists Heroes of Middle East
Afghanistan- Danish Karokhel
Algeria – Ali Dilem
Bahrain- Ali Abduleman & Ahmed Humaiden
Egypt – Abeer Sady
Iran – Adnan Hassenpour, Jila Bani Yaghoub, Siamak Kaderi, & Said Matinpour
Iraq – Sardar Mohummand
Libya – Amira Al Kitabi & Hanan Al Mqawab
Morocco-Ali Lmrabet & Ali Anouzla
Pakistan – Hamid Mir, Muhummad Ziaudin
Syria – Mazen Darwish & Razan Zeitouneh
Tunisia – Najiba Hamrouni & Fahem Boukadous
Turkey- Ismail Saymaz, Hasan Kemal
Yemen – Abdul Bahry Taher
United Arab Emirates – Waleed Al Shehhi
The complete list may be found here.
