Spain rises two places to 29th on Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 Press Freedom ranking

SPAIN has ranked 29^th on a table of the countries with the most press freedom, up two places compared to last year.

Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Ranking scored 180 countries for the table.

RSF said there had been a ‘clear improvement’ to the situation in Cataluña although it remains a hostile environment for radio and television reporters.

RSF said there were around 40 verbal and physical attacks on journalists in the region over the last 18 months.

The organisation said reforms to Spain’s RTVE public broadcaster in 2017 to shield it from government interference was good news. But RSF added that hatred for journalists existed in Spain as it did in other Western democracies.

En la #UnionEuropea y los #Blacanes, el dique parece haberse roto >> Análisis: https://t.co/L1K98yedMy

En #EuropadelEste y #AsiaCentral: Deriva hacia la oscuridad con algunas luces de esperanza >> Análisis: https://t.co/2jptGVz1zn#RSFINDEX / CLASIFICACIÓN MUNDIAL 2019 de RSF pic.twitter.com/URkMYBj4yQ

— RSF España (@RSF_ES) April 18, 2019

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Spain came behind Cyprus and ahead of Lithuania in the table. Norway, Finland and Sweden came first, second and third respectively while Germany came 13^th and Britain came 33^rd.

RSF awarded countries zero to 100 points based on the representation of differing opinions, media independence, the environment for journalists, the legal framework, transparency, support infrastructure and abuses.