Latin America's Growing Press Freedom Troubles
by Andres Oppenheimer
A new report on press freedoms worldwide contains a chilling figure: Only 2 percent of Latin Americans live in countries with a free press. But I wonder whether the report paints an accurate picture of what's going on in the region.
Before we get into that, let's look at the main conclusions of the "Freedom of the Press 2014: A global survey of media independence" report by Freedom House, one of the oldest and most influential human rights advocacy groups in
According to the report, global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade, mainly because of a major regression in
Even in
In the new report,
Among
Among the Latin American countries rated "Not Free" are
Further along the list, indicating that they are even less free, are
But I wonder whether the Freedom House report paints an accurate picture of media freedoms in
Is it fair to put
If you go
If you go to
In
My opinion: The Freedom House index is a worthy effort, but it mixes apples and oranges. You can't put countries that suffer from government censorship in the same basket with others where drug gangs and organized crime try to silence the media. They are two different problems that are sometimes intertwined, but that most often require different solutions.
Having said that, it's fair to say that
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