In Korea, Freedom of Press Goes Backwards

South Korea’s governance index, including freedom of press, politics, quality of regulations, constitutional governance and corruption control has been getting worse, according to World Bank announcement.

The World Bank released a report called Governance 2007, which evaluates 212 nations’ freedom of press and civil participation, political stability, effectiveness of government, quality of regulation, constitutional governance and corruption control on July 10.

The governance index ranges from -2.5 to 2.5 and is based on polls of civilian, organizational experts, entrepreneurs and NGO officials and recent data from international organizations. According to the report, only government effectiveness improved from 1.01 (ranking: 46) in 2005 to 1.05 (ranking: 37) last year, while the rest of the five sectors seriously deteriorated.

Civil participation and freedom of press fell from 0.78 (ranking: 58) in 2005 to 0.71 (62) last year, which is close to that of Monaco (ranking: 60) and Tuvalu (61). In addition, political stability is worse compared to the index of 2005 and fell from 0.55 (76) to 0.42 (84) last year.

The quality of regulation fell from 0.78 (59) to 0.70 (61), and constitutional governance fell from 0.78 (54) to 0.72 (58).

The corruption index fell from 0.47 (65) in 2005 to 0.3. (74) last year, which is lower than Singapore (5), Hong Kong (16), Japan (21), Bahrain (60), Malaysia (67), and Jordan(68).

As for North Korea, it ranked as one of the worst countries for freedom of press (-2.20, 208), effectiveness of the government (-1.70, 211), quality of regulation (-2.5, 205), constitutional governance (-1.28, 195) and corruption control (-1.69, 206). Its political stability had a score of 0.24 and ranked 130th.

Meanwhile, Denmark got top marks in freedom of press and governance effectiveness, and Iceland ranked first in political stability and constitutional governance. Hong Kong got first place in quality of regulation and Finland was graded the best on corruption control.

In contrast, Myanmar was picked as a country that needs freedom of press the most, and Iraq is the most politically unstable country in the world. Somalia ranked as the worst country for government effectiveness, quality of regulation, constitutional governance and corruption control.

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