CAIRO, June 3 (KUNA) -- The Arab Journalists Union has classified Kuwait first in freedom of journalism followed by Jordan, Egypt and Qatar.
The report was announced by the President of the union, Ibrahim Nafi', who said that the report has been issued after evaluation was done by foreign agencies over press freedoms in the Arab countries.
Nafi' said that this report is only a start, expressing hope upcoming reports would be more clear and strong.
He said the report was a result of a great cooperation among the Arab journalist unions and syndicates with the permanent committee of freedoms of the Arab Journalists Union.
For his part, head of the freedoms committee Saif Al-Sharif said that all information gathered in the report had been collected by the syndicates and press associations in the Arab world.
Furthermore, Secretary General of the union Salahuddine Hafedh said the report spots the press violations in the Arab world, describing the violations as severe and public.
He added that such violations facing the press freedoms are associated with the lack of progress in the political reform in the Arab countries.
He pointed out that this is the first report and it is published in the Arabic language which focuses on conditions of press freedoms in the Arab world, adding that this report is not biased.
The report showed that some 25 journalists have been killed in the year 2005, 22 in Iraq, one in Lebanon and another in Libya.
The report stressed that no single reporter or journalist had been arrested in 2005, adding that an intervention in the press material was made through an owner of a publication.
It said that government information and other press materials can easily be obtained to reporters in Kuwait.
