Top 10 Toughest Countries for Journalists

The African nation of Eritrea is the most censored country in the world when it comes to press freedom and access to information.

That comes from the just-released top 10 list from the Committee to Protect Journalists based on their research and featured as part of its annual publication, Attacks on the Press, which will be released in full on April 27.

"Eritrea is Africa's worst jailer of journalists, with at least 23 behind bars—none of whom has been tried in court or even charged with a crime," said CPJ.

Number two on the list is North Korea, where rather than a global Internet, which only a few have access to, they have a "tightly controlled intranet," says CPJ.

Rounding out the list are Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iran, China, Myanmar and Cuba.

An important factor in making the list was restricting access to the Internet and lack of cell phone/smartphone availability, as well as harassment and imprisonment of journalists.

Just missing the top 10 were Belarus, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, all of which have little to no independent media.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.