FOTP 2013 Full Report

advertising market contracted and a number of outlets closed, cut staff, or reduced salaries. Severaljournalists at RTVE, the state-owned broadcaster, were removed after voicing criticism of thegovernment’s controversial fiscal policies. Due in part to economic pressures, Italy’s score remained at33, with a Partly Free status, despite a decrease in political influence over media content since SilvioBerlusconi’s departure from the premiership in late 2011. Cyprus showed a three-point decline, from 22to 25, owing to the closure of several television stations that were unable to afford the cost of new digitallicenses, and the resulting decrease in local media diversity.Turkey remained a regional outlier with a score of 56, deep inside the Partly Free range, as thegovernment continued to crack down on journalists in 2012. Constitutional guarantees of freedom of thepress and expression are only partially upheld in practice, undermined by restrictive provisions in thecriminal code and the Anti-Terrorism Act. Thanks to detentions stemming from investigations into thealleged Ergenekon coup conspiracy and a crackdown on suspected Kurdish militants, Turkey remainsamong the nations with the most journalists behind bars in the world.Improvements were seen in France due to laws and court rulings that enhanced protection ofsources, and in the Netherlands because of the repeal of a blasphemy law, although certain restrictionsare still in place. In the United Kingdom, a pending bill to reform the country’s libel laws, which heavilyfavor the plaintiff, was seen as a positive step. However, media freedom advocates as well as PrimeMinister David Cameron criticized a November 2012 report by Lord Justice Leveson—launched in thewake of the 2011 News of the World phone-hacking scandal—that recommended the establishment ofstatutory regulation for the British press.35