Uzbekistan's place in the international rating of press freedom has dropped by 4 places

The international organization "Reporters Without Borders" has published its annual report on freedom of the press for 2023. Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are the leading countries in this ranking, while Russia is 164th out of 180 countries (it was 155th in 2022), and Ukraine is 79th. ring (106th place last year) was considered worthy. The last places in the rating were occupied by North Korea, China, Vietnam, Iran, Turkmenistan and Syria. Uzbekistan is ranked 137th with a score of 45.73 and is below the regional countries of Kyrgyzstan (122nd), Kazakhstan (134th), Tajikistan (153rd) and It ranks higher than Turkmenistan (176th place). In the 2022 ranking, Uzbekistan took 133rd place with 45.74 points. Commenting on Uzbekistan's 4-point drop in this rating, the international organization "Reporters Without Borders" writes that it is still difficult for the mass media in the country to criticize the government. "There is no private television network in Uzbekistan. State radio carries out official propaganda, private radio stations refrain from any criticism for fear of being closed, and the written press serves the interests of the state. About 15 online media outlets, some of which are located abroad, publish quality content. About a third of the press broadcasts in Russian," the report says.