The Freedom House released its annual Freedom of the Press rankings (PDF file). Let’s see how “fascist” countries of the Baltic rank:
Estonia shares 16th place with Germany, U.S., and other countries.
Lithuania shares 18th place.
Latvia shares 31st place with the United Kingdom.
Russia is on the 164th place, lower than countries like Venezuela, Bhutan, and Kuwait.
From the press release:
“The records of Venezuela and Russia are appalling, all the more so because of those countries’ impact on their regions,” said Karin Karlekar, managing editor of the press freedom survey. “But we are also disturbed by the level of press freedom decline in what we had assumed were established democracies.”
While many countries in Central and Eastern Europe rank firmly in the Free category, the repressive media landscape in the former Soviet Union is illuminated by the fact that 10 of the 12 non-Baltic post-Soviet states are ranked Not Free.