Next ranking of press freedom: Lithuania higher than Poland

According to the level of press freedom, Lithuania is ahead of Russia, Belarus, Latvia, and Poland; however, it falls behind Estonia – the non-governmental organisation Freedom House reported on Wednesday.

In the ranking, Lithuania takes the 33rd place out of 199 countries and territories that were assessed, being placed ahead of many other states, including France and Great Britain.

Vytis Jurkonis, Office Manager of the Freedom House in Lithuania, says that the organization, as it had done before, emphasised considerable media concentration and quite hard economic conditions for their performance in Lithuania.

 “When the media find it hard to be financially independent, not infrequently do they become dependent on their sponsors and donors. It’s not a secret that the policy of taxation was a quite painful blow for newspapers and magazines, and the dependence on local governments and politicians is especially noticeable in some regions,” comments Jurkonis.

Estonia, having been assessed as the best of the East Europe countries, is placed 15th. Poland and Latvia share the 51st position.

Russia and Belarus take 176th and 192nd places respectively.