The US independent association Freedom House, which monitors civil liberties around the world, on Tuesday issued the "Freedom in the Press 2012: Breakthroughs and Pushback in the Middle East" report, which says that the Arab Spring has brought great progress on that front and that Croatia remains a country with partly free media.
The report, which refers to 2011, ranks Croatia 83rd out of 197 countries with a rating of 40, as against 85th and 41 last year, with the status of a country with partly free media.
For the first time in eight years, media freedom did not decline globally, thanks to the Arab uprisings, the report says.
The countries in Croatia's region recorded a mild decline, with Serbia ranked 77th, Montenegro 76th, Bosnia and Herzegovina 95th and Macedonia 115th, all rated as Partly Free.
The report, issued two days ahead of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, ranks Western democracies highly, as before, with Finland, Norway and Sweden leading the ratings.
Of the 197 countries covered by the report, Freedom House rated 66 as Free, 72 as Partly Free and 59 as Not Free.
The worst rating was given to Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Countries are given a total score from 0 (best) to 100 (worst) on the basis of a set of 23 methodology questions divided into three subcategories. Countries scoring 0 to 30 are regarded as having Free media; 31 to 60 Partly Free media; and 61 to 100 Not Free media.
Freedom House, founded in 1941, is based in Washington and researches democracy, political freedoms and human rights around the world.
