ROME -- Italy has slipped several places in the world rankings for freedom of press in 2016, according to a new report that was released Wednesday by ‘Reporters Without Borders’ [Reporters sans frontières].  The ranking contains details for 180 countries, within which Italy has slid from 73^rd place to the 77^th.

 The organisation, which is based in France, says that most of the information released on Wednesday “is indicative of a climate of fear and tension combined with increasing control over newsrooms by governments and private sector interests.”

 The countries are ranked and then depicted on a map on a five-point scale from “good situation” to “very serious situation.”  Despite showing Europe to have the freest media coverage, Italy is well below other Western European countries and is marked in the middle ground of having “noticeable problems.”  Reporters Without Borders put this down to the increase in the number of police raids with the aim of violating “the confidentiality of journalists’ sources,” as well as noting that it is “a country where threats from the mafia are also frequent.”

 Finland, Holland and Norway head the rankings from first to third place consecutively, whilst Tunisia has shown the most drastic improvement due to a decline in violence and legal proceedings.  Those that have fallen farthest include Poland, which had dropped 29 places to 47^th, still well above Italy, thanks to an ultra-conservative government that has taken over control of public media, as well as Tajikistan, who have succumbed to a fall of 34 places to put them at 150^th due to the growing authoritarianism of the regime.

 The last places are held by Turkmenistan and North Korea, with Eritrea in last place.  The index looks at media freedom through these 180 countries according to the safety of journalists, media independence, pluralism and the quality of the legal framework that surrounds the profession.

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