Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji and Tonga move up in World press freedom rankings

Posted at 21:56 on 24 October, 2008 UTC

Both Fiji and Tonga have moved up in the world press freedom rankings, released this week.

The rankings are released every year, by the organisation, Reporters without Borders, and measure 49 criteria that assess the state of press freedom in each country.

They include violations directly affecting journalists, such as murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats, and news media like censorship, confiscation and harassment

Fiji has moved up to 79th equal, and Tonga, the only other Pacific country on the list, has moved up to 82 equal.

New Zealand is up to seventh equal, and Australia remains 28th.

The list was headed by Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway, all equal first, and African nation Eritrea comes last, just behind North Korea.