FEB. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media freedom rankings by the France-based NGO Reporters Without Borders reflect another tough year for local journalists in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Turkmenistan retains its standard position at the bottom of the 179-country list, just above North Korea and Eritrea, underlining its reputation as one of the world’s most repressive states. Twenty places above Turkmenistan is Uzbekistan, also in familiar territory.

But this year, between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, sliding 10 places to 162nd is Azerbaijan.

In 2011, the authorities in Azerbaijan quashed anti-government protests and imprisoned journalists and bloggers. In November a prominent Azerbaijani journalist was also murdered in Baku.

Reporters Without Borders called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a “predator” of the media.

“Violence is back in a big way there, with threats, beatings and abduction of opposition journalists,” the report said.

The report was compiled between Dec. 1 2010 and Nov. 30 2011, before the Kazakh authorities’ crackdown on media after riots in the west of the country.

Even so, Kazakhstan comes in at 154th position and looks set to slip in the next rankings.

Armenia enjoys the most media freedom in the region. In 77th position it has regained ground lost after opposition protests and a state-of-emergency in 2008.

ENDS