Estonia Won't Play Dead

FOTP Monday

Continuing our alphabetic tour of the great nations of Europe, we head this week to Estonia, a land of 1.3 million, or a million fewer people than they have in the borough of Queens, New York. Say what you want about the place — Estonia, not Queens —I think this is rather fascinating and encouraging.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), when it comes to press freedoms, Estonia is ranked second in the world next to Norway of the 180 nations it surveyed. RWB bases its finding on physical attacks against journalists and economic constraints against journalism. The United States, by the way, ranks 57th, just below Sierra Leone, and just above Gambia. (Anyone want to bet where we’ll be next year?) In other countries touted for their love of the free press, this, too, was disheartening. Israel, the only democracy in the region we keep hearing, ranks 112th, while Palestine, or what’s left of it, ranks 163rd — not as big of a gap as I thought there might be.