Gore Vidal, writing in the Times in 1987 (’Italian genius: put it down to curiosity’, 17 November):
In journalism, Italians are perhaps more politicized than their English or American counterparts. But then they have more politics. On the other hand, as they have no class war to write about, they are obliged to fill their [...]
From reporters san frontières:
Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Rank
40
53
39
52
40
35
Total countries
139
166
167
167
168
169
Unfortunately, no disaggregated scores are available. Similar trends to those seen in the Freedom House survey can be seen.
From Freedom House:
Aspect
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Status
Free
Free
Partly Free
Partly Free
Partly Free
Free
Free
Legal Environment
2
8
11
9
9
9
10
Political Influences
11
6
13
13
13
11
10
Economic Pressures
14
14
9
13
13
9
9
Total Score
27
28
33
35
35
29
29
Ranking
none given
none given
74
joint 77 with Bolivia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, the Philippines
joint 79 with Botswana
joint 61 with Cape Verde, Guyana, Israel, Sao Tome e Principe
joint 65 with Samoa
Scores are from 0 – 100; higher scores are worse.
It should be obvious that press freedom declines when Silvio Berlusconi is [...]