Finland ranks 2nd in Press Freedom Index
Published : 18 Apr 2019, 20:25
Updated : 19 Apr 2019, 02:16
Finland has been ranked second in the 2019 World Press Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Norway ranked top in the index, Sweden placed third followed by The Netherlands , Denmark, Switzerland, New Zealand, Jamaica, Belgium and Costa Rica.
Turkmenistan was ranked bottom in the list of the 180 countries followed by North Korea, Eritrea, China, Vietnam and Sudan.
The latest ranking was an improvement from the 2018 World Press Index when Finland was ranked fourth.
Finland had been ranked first in the World Press Freedom Index for five years running until it was dethroned by Norway in 2017.
In profiling Finland, RSF revisited presidents Trump and Putin meeting in Helsinki in July 2018, when all of the billboards between the airport and the city were filled with news headlines illustrating their attitudes towards freedom of the press and telling them, in English and in Russian: "Mr. President, welcome to the land of the free press".
RSF also pointed to the case in October 2018 in which two pro-Putin activists were handed heavy sentences for defaming and stalking a female journalist with the purpose of trying to silence her.