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Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2013: United States Improves In Media Freedom

Reporters Without Borders Releases 2013 Press Freedom Index
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Young demonstrators scuffle with police during a protest against the proposed sale of influential media outlets to a pro-China businessman in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. The sale of Taiwan's popular Next Media, owned by fiery China critic media mogul Jimmy Lai, to a group that includes outspokenly pro-China media magnate Tsai Eng-meng sparked vociferous protests in Taipei on Tuesday, with demonstrators alleging it will greatly expand Chinese influence on the democratic island amid receding press freedoms. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

Reporters Without Borders released its annual Press Freedom Index on Tuesday, and the results look a bit different this year.

"After the 'Arab springs' and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration," the organization reported. "The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term."

This year, Finland was rated the country that respects press freedom the most for the third year in a row. Syria, Turkenistan, North Korea and Eritrea ranked as the worst four countries for press freedom for the second year in a row. The index was based on a range of criteria, from legislation to violence against journalists.

The United States, which dropped precipitously in the 2012 index after the treatment of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street protests, was up 15 points this time.

Below, see the ten best and worst countries for press freedom, and click over to Reporters Without Borders for the full breakdown of the rankings.

Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index 2013
10th WORST Country For Press Freedom: Sudan(01 of16)
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Sudanese Minister of Information Kamal Mohammed Obeid unveils in front of journalists the new map of Sudan in Khartoum on July 4, 2011 ahead of the formal independence of the south on July 9. AFP PHOTO/ASHRAF SHAZLY (Photo credit should read ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
9. Cuba(02 of16)
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Cuban opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez listens to a question from a journalist outside a Migration Office, on January 14, 2013 in Havana. A law allowing Cubans to travel abroad without special exit visas took effect on the communist-ruled island for the first time in half a century. The measure does away with the exit visas that have kept most Cubans from ever traveling abroad. AFP PHOTO/ADALBERTO ROQUE (Photo credit should read ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)
8. Vietnam(03 of16)
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A street newspaper vendor looks at the building of the Hanoi People's Court where two journalists are standing trial for their coverage of a major state corruption scandal on October 15, 2008 in Hanoi. The court sentenced one of them, Nguyen Viet Chien from Thanh Nien daily to two years in prison being found guilty of 'abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state'. AFP PHOTO/HOANG DINH Nam (credit:Getty)
7. China(04 of16)
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Police take the details of foreign journalists outside the studio of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing on November 14, 2011. The lawyer for Ai Weiwei Pu Zhiqiang said the tax office in Beijing has refused to accept money the activist needs to pay in order to lodge an appeal against a huge tax bill. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
6. Iran(05 of16)
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Jens Koch one of the two German reporters freed by the Iranian authority, is seen at Tehran's Mehrabbad Airport after arriving from Tabriz on February 19, 2011. The German reporters Marcus Hellwig and Koch, who were held by the authorities for interviewing the son and lawyer of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, were freed after the courts commuted their jail terms to 50,000-dollar fines. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (credit:Getty)
5. Somalia(06 of16)
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Somali journalists holding up the picture of their colleague arrested, Abdiaziz Abdinor Ibrahim, participate in a meeting for condemning his long term in jail on January, 27, 2013 in Mogadishu. General attorney of Somali nation Abdikadir Mohamed Muse, announced on Saturday that the Somali police investigation on Abdiaziz ended and will be courted. Abdiaziz has been accused of reporting false rape, and giving the women bribery so as to tell lie. Lul Ali Osman, the rape victim told to the journalist she was rapped by five Somali police-dressed men, but the police refused that. AFP PHOTO MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB HAJIABIKAR (Photo credit should read MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB HAJIABIKAR/AFP/Getty Images)
4. Syria(07 of16)
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A Syrian man reads the daily state-run newspaper Tishrin in a cafe decorated with portraits of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 3, 2011. Syria's former agriculture minister Adel Safar was asked by the president to form a new government, the state-run news agency SANA reported. AFP PHOTO/ANWAR AMRO (credit:Getty)
3. Turkmenistan(08 of16)
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ASHGABAD, TURKMENISTAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov (R) sit during their meeting in Ashgabat, 11 May 2007. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov promised closer energy ties on Friday as the Kremlin leader continued a visit challenging European and US influence in the Caspian region. AFP PHOTO / ITAR-TASS POOL / PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE (Photo credit should read MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
2. North Korea(09 of16)
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Journalists try to get a glimpse of North Korean mourners at a North Korean restaurant watching a telecast of the funeral of the late leader Kim Jong-Il, at the North Korean and Chinese border town of Dandong on December 28, 2011. North Korea is preparing a massive ceremonial farewell to late leader Kim Jong-Il as it strove to strengthen a new personality cult around his youthful son and successor Jong-Un. The secretive state has so far given no details of the December 28 funeral for its 'Dear Leader' of the past 17 years. But analysts say the regime, as it did in 1994 when Kim Jong-Il's own father died, will use the event to shore up loyalty to the new leader and will likely mobilise hundreds of thousands of people. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
10th BEST Country For Press Freedom: Sweden(10 of16)
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Swedish artist Lars Vilks (Facing Camera) speaks to journalists after apperaring on the TV4 morning news show in Stockholm on March 10, 2010. Leading Swedish newspapers on March 10, 2010 published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog by a caricaturist who was the target of an assassination plot by Muslims arrested in Ireland. AFP PHOTO/SCANPIX/BERTIL ERICSON (Photo credit should read BERTIL ERICSON/AFP/Getty Images)
7. Liechtenstein(11 of16)
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Spain's midfielder Fernando Llorente (R) and defender Javier Martinez (2R) talk to journalists after a training session on September 5, 2011, on the eve of the Euro2012 qualifying football match against Liechtenstein at Las Gaunas stadium, in Logrono. AFP PHOTO/ RAFA RIVAS (Photo credit should read RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
6. Denmark(12 of16)
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Jaume Bartomeu (C), head of Andorran government, answers journalists' questions on November 8, 2009 in the Massana valley in northwest Andorra, where two more workers died overnight after a bridge under construction in the Pyrenees principalty of Andorra collapsed, bringing the death toll to five. Police are investigating to determine the causes of the accident at the bridge that was to link the tunnel to a road leading to two nearby villages. AFP PHOTO / RAYMOND ROIG (Photo credit should read RAYMOND ROIG/AFP/Getty Images)
5. Andorra(13 of16)
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Jaume Bartomeu (C), head of Andorran government, answers journalists' questions on November 8, 2009 in the Massana valley in northwest Andorra, where two more workers died overnight after a bridge under construction in the Pyrenees principalty of Andorra collapsed, bringing the death toll to five. Police are investigating to determine the causes of the accident at the bridge that was to link the tunnel to a road leading to two nearby villages. AFP PHOTO / RAYMOND ROIG (Photo credit should read RAYMOND ROIG/AFP/Getty Images)
3. Norway(14 of16)
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The chairman of the Labor Youth of Norway, Eskil Pedersen, speaks to reporters on June 22, 2012 outside the courtroom in Oslo on the last day of the trial of Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik. His defense is trying to prove that Breivik's killing of 77 people in twin attacks in July 2011 was not an act of insanity. Even though there is no chance Breivik will be set free, his lawyers must formally make the request since their client has pleaded not guilty, despite having confessed to carrying out the murderous twin attacks on July 22, 2011, when he first bombed a government building in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on Utoeya island, northwest of the capital, where the ruling Labor Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp. Sixty-nine people died on the island, most of them teens. Breivik, 33, has confessed to the twin attacks but has refused to plead guilty, insisting they were 'cruel but necessary' to stop the Labor Party's 'multicultural experiment' and the 'Muslim invasion' of Norway and Europe. AFP PHOTO / Stian Lysberg Solum (Photo credit should read Stian Lysberg Solum/AFP/GettyImages)
2. Netherlands(15 of16)
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Journalists film as International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo gives a press conference at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, on January 24, 2012 one day after the ICC ruled that Kenya's deputy prime minister and another presidential hopeful are among four suspects who should be tried over deadly post-poll unrest four years ago. Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki appealed for calm in the east African country amid fears the Hague-based court's anxiously awaited confirmation of charges hearing could revive ethnic and political tensions. AFP PHOTO / ANP - MARCEL ANTONISSE netherlands out - belgium out (Photo credit should read MARCEL ANTONISSE/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
1. Finland(16 of16)
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Journalists taste a 200-year-old champagne, on November 17, 2010 in Mariehamn. Finnish officials pop the cork of a 200-year-old bottle of champagne, after 70 bottles of what is believed to be the world's oldest bubbly were discovered on July 2010 in a shipwreck, at a depth of fifty meters, southeast of Mariehamn, on the southwestern Finnnish Aaland Islands of the Baltic Sea. AFP PHOTO/JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)

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