Chris Hanretty » freedom house http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog Notes on Italian politics and public broadcasting Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:58:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Freedom House rankings for 2009 http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/05/02/freedom-house-rankings-for-2009/ http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/05/02/freedom-house-rankings-for-2009/#comments Sat, 02 May 2009 08:50:56 +0000 Chris http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/05/02/freedom-house-rankings-for-2009/ The Freedom House rankings for press freedom for 2009 are now out [h/t Michele].

Italy drops to 73rd place, loses ‘Free’ status. The headline for the press release says that this is the first time Italy has lost ‘Free’ status. Not so This is the second time Italy has suffered this fate– it was also judged ‘partly free’ from 2002 to 2004, again with Berlusconi in office.

]]> http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/05/02/freedom-house-rankings-for-2009/feed/ 1 Press Freedom in Italy over time http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2008/08/30/press-freedom-in-italy-over-time/ http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2008/08/30/press-freedom-in-italy-over-time/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:47:08 +0000 Chris http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2008/08/30/press-freedom-in-italy-over-time/ 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 in government. Indeed, in the country report for 2007, there is an explicit note stating that “Italy’s rating improved from Partly Free to Free primarily as a result of Silvio Berlusconi’s exit as prime minister”

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