Thai and world press freedom has hit its lowest level in a decade after a regression in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, and US efforts to curb national security reporting, a watchdog said Friday.
A report by Freedom House, which has been conducting annual surveys since 1980, found that the share of the world's population with media rated "free" was 14 percent in 2013, or only one in seven people.
With a score of 61 out of 100, Thailand ranks just 62nd worldwide. The country dropped six points in the Freedom House scoring and drew special comment from the monitoring group.
Thailand tallied "its worst score of the past decade — due to increased physical harassment and attacks on journalists and media outlets by political activists, often in the context of political unrest and demonstrations, as well as partisanship and biased content at a number of media outlets," according to the report.
It also cited government "censorship of online content, coupled with the aggressive enforcement of lese-majeste laws, [which] continued to suppress free expression in the country".
But the US group said of three categories measured, Thailand's greatest press freedom is in covering politics. Covering legal matters and business fell far behind, partly because of lese majeste laws.
Freedom House rated Thai media coverage of protests as among the most restricted of all. "Numerous cases" of harassment or worse by demonstrators put Thai press freedom down the list.
Full Story: Bangkok Post
Thai press freedom lowest in 10 years
Thai press freedom lowest in 10 years
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