This episode of The Listening Post is a special show that explores some of the worst places in the world for journalism.
Every year, the French media campaign group Reporter Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) publishes its Press Freedom Index.
Looking specifically at press freedom violations, rather than broader human rights issues, the index represents an exhaustive survey of factors affecting the ability of media to operate in every country in the world, considering factors such as violence, censorship and corruption. The results make disturbing reading.
The Listening Post's Salah Khadr introduces the Index, and gives an overview of some of the 'unchanging hells' at the foot of the table.
The difficulties of reporting from some of the most closed countries that RSF describes are hard to appreciate from outside their borders. Over the last 12 months, The Listening Post's Simon Ostrovsky has travelled to a selection of the most paranoid and isolated nations. This week we present some of the 'highlights' of his trips: including Alexander Lukashenko's Soviet throwback, Belarus, General Than Shwe's junta in the jungle, Myanmar, and the restrictions still being imposed on the media in Russia.
