Tonga ranks no. 84 among the 173 countries in the 'Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2008', released in Paris, France yesterday, October 22.

The survey was carried out during the 12 months to September 1, 2008. The countries with the most-free press are Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway heading the list.

Aside from New Zealand (10) and Canada (13), the first 20 positions are held by European countries.

From the Pacific Australia holds its rank at 28, while Fiji (80) and Tonga (84) have improved their rankings this year. Further a field are the United Kingdom (25), Germany (26), France (35), USA (41) and China (167).

Countries described as "suffocating dictatorships" fall to the bottom of the rankings. Eritrea (173), which has come last for the second year running is called a "vast open prison", and in company with North Korea (172) and Turkmenistan (171) described as "unchanging hells in which the population is cut off from the world and is subjected to propaganda worthy of a bygone age."

Peace

A statement from the Reporters Without Borders pointed out that the main lesson to be learned from this year's World Press Freedom Index, is "that it is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom."

They say that democracies embroiled in wars outside their own territory, such as the United States or Israel, fall further in the ranking every year, "while several emerging countries, especially in Africa and the Caribbean, give better and better guarantees for media freedom.

"The post-9/11 world is now clearly drawn," Reporters Without Borders said. "Destabilised and on the defensive, the leading democracies are gradually eroding the space for freedoms. The economically most powerful dictatorships arrogantly proclaim their authoritarianism, exploiting the international community's divisions and the ravages of the wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism. Religious and political taboos are taking greater hold by the year in countries that used to be advancing down the road of freedom," it warned.

Muzzled

"The world's closed countries, governed by the worst press freedom predators, continue to muzzle their media at will, with complete impunity, while organisations such as the UN lose all authority over their members," Reporters Without Borders added.

"In contrast with this generalised decline, there are economically weak countries that nonetheless guarantee their population the right to disagree with the government and to say so publicly."