Pakistan is world's sixth worst offender of press freedom

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based media watchdog, has named Pakistan as the world's sixth worst offender for press freedom.

New York, May 2 : The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based media watchdog, has named Pakistan as the world's sixth worst offender for press freedom.

According to the CPJ, the other countries showing no respect for press freedom are Ethiopia, Gambia, Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Thailand.

The Daily Times quoted CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon as saying that these countries were assessed on the basis of the following factors: government censorship, legal harassment, libel prosecutions, journalist deaths, physical attacks on the press, journalist imprisonments, and threats against the press.

Ethiopia topped the list with the number of jailed journalists rising to 18 from two and dozens more exiled between 2002 and 2007. In 2006, CPJ said eight newspapers were banned, two foreign reporters expelled and Web sites blocked.

In Gambia prominent journalist Deyda Hydara was shot dead in 2004, and leading newspaper "The Independent" was targeted by arsonists and then shut down by the government, the CPJ said.

Russia came in at number three because all three national television channels were state run and 11 journalists killed in five years with none of the cases solved.

In the Congo, two journalists had been killed since 2005, attacks on media workers had risen to nine from three and the leaders of press freedom group "Journaliste en Danger" were forced into hiding in 2006.

Cuba is number five, Pakistan six, Morocco nine and Thailand 10 on the CPJ list.

ANI