REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the 2011-2012 World Press Freedom Index on 25 January.

While Turkey was on 138^th position out of a total of 179 surveyed countries last year, the country fell back a further ten places to rank no. 148 this year.

The RSF report claims that Turkey is "back to old habits".

"Turkey continued its descent, this time falling 10 places to 148th. Despite the diversity and energy of its media, 2011 saw a dramatic escalation in the judicial harassment of journalists. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, dozens were jailed before being tried, above all in the investigations into the Ergenekon conspiracy and the KCK, an alleged political offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. The unprecedented extension of the range of arrests, the massive phone taps and the contempt shown for the confidentiality of journalists' sources have helped to reintroduce a climate of intimidation in the media", the report summarized.

According to data on the RSF website, the ranking of Turkey in the World Press Freedom Index developed as followed since 2002:

2002: 100^th position; 2003: 116; 2004: 114; 2005: 98; 2006: 100; 2007: 101; 2008: 103; 2009: 123; 2010: 138; 2011: 148^th position (EKN/VK)

Click here to read the RSF 2011-2012 World Press Freedom Index.