Laurence Dollimore
THE World Press Freedom index has listed Spain above the UK.
Out of 180 countries, Spain was ranked 34th and the UK 38th.
This is despite the fact that Spain remains behind the UK in freedom of information legislation.
In 2014 a new ‘transparency law’ took effect that does not treat access to information as a fundamental right.
It has already seen journalists fined for photographing police or residents accosted for criticising them on twitter.
The index also noted that journalism in the country has suffered since the recession, with 354 media outlets closing and more than 11,000 journalists losing their job.
The UK has dropped four places due to the government’s national security legislation.
The index cited the 2006 Terrorism Act, which they say restricts freedom of expression, while the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, they say, allows authorities to obtain phone records of journalists in case of threats to national security.
First on the list was Finland followed by the Netherlands and Norway, while the bottom three featured Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
See the full list here: http://rsf.org/en/ranking
‘Tops’ sounds good. In reality, the five main Spanish newspapers – El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, the ABC y La Razón are all losing readership and are printing less copies. They are gathering ‘institutional advertising’ from Government sources in exchange for a certain self-control on their editorials. To help this along, the last Government leant on the owners of El Mundo, el País and La Vanguardia to switch editors (El Mundo’s famous Pedro J Ramírez now has his own cyberpaper El Español). El País, the famous centre-left paper, now overtly rightist! the ABC and La Razón have always been to the right and the acting Interior Minister just made the editor of the later one an honorary police commissar! Meanwhile, the journalists at the RTVE are angry at what they call ‘the permanent Government manipulation’. If the UK is worse than this, then Gawd ‘elp us!
The index must be wrong.
Correct Anselmo. Considering the “Gag Law”, Spain should rank near North Korea.
Probably you are right.
But the ‘relax’ pages from Málagas ‘Sur’ are open minded and uncensored. Maybe in this topic they rank higher than Finland on the Freedom index?
Wolfgang,
Catholic countries have always been more open about sex than the sexually repressed Protestant ones, after all self flagellation has always been big in Rome, Pope John Paul was very into this.
Stuart
According with Catholicism, an entire life in a virtuous way do not implies the salvation of the soul. The important if that one will sincerely repent of his sins, in the moment before the death. And too for to achieve the salvation, its not good be rich.
So to commited sins related with sex is not a signal of predestination for Hell.