This year’s ranking from the Reporters Without Borders is headed by Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway.
The Russian media coverage of last fall’s State Duma elections and this year’s Presidential elections were high biased with the main state TV-channels Pervy Kanal, Rossiya and TV-Tsentr, as well as the private RenTV and NTV heavily favouring the official position of the authorities.
The report concludes that major pressure was exerted on the media in the election period and that several journalists were arrested in connection with coverage of event organised by the political opposition and independent newspapers shut down.
Read the report from Reporters Without Borders here (.pdf)
