Given Labor's unrelenting attack on the free press, freedom of information and attempts at internet censorship, I am not surprised.

As the author says, freedom of the press is not absolute, giving rise to real dilemmas about finding a balance.

While there are obviously threats of government censorship which need to be opposed, my sense is that this author ignores the other side of the equation (perhaps understandably given his association with journalism). This is particularly important in the days of large corporate media (see the British News Ltd hacking episode).

Is RSF concerned about the quite explicit attempts by media owners to influence events through their control of media companies (see the recent moves by Gina Rinehart)?

If not, they should be.

Its interesting to note that bastion of freedom of the press and free speech the United States of America finds itself in 47th position just behind Taiwan and South Korea.
The biggest danger to a free and open media in Australia is the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few mega rich individuals who's power to influence public opinion is far to great. To have a well informed society we need a good mix of public and private media, we don't have that in Australia. Quality journalism mostly gets lost between the shock jocks on radio and the 30 second grab on the 6 o'clock news on commercial TV, too many Australian get their new this way, not a healthy outcome to create a well informed society. Having said that we do have some quality journalists both in the print media and on TV mostly ABC, unfortunately they are not herd often enough to have a deserving impact on Australia.

Paul,

Australia's ranking dropped under labor with no change to press ownership.

Who has the biggest % of media ownership? Consider that press is only a small section.

Newscorp only owns a few newspapers, that they have become the most popular and purchased, is because they do the best reporting.

Shadow Minister has his fact wrong again, but hey what's new. If News corp. only had news papers then most of the papers they own would have been shutdown a long time ago. Instead they could afford to run many of their papers at a loss and kill off the opersition. News corps "Australian", Australia's only national paper is run at a loss still and has done for a long time.

Back to the Author, I think Australia’s drop in the Jurno's international ranking, is a reflection on the very bad state of affairs in Australian journo-lie-ism.
In their race to the bottom of advertising dollars all media in Australia has gone downhill. I can't think of a single journo operating in Australia at the moment, every single one of them are ambulance chasers looking for the next News of the World headline story.

Kenny,

You got your facts wrong.

Where did I say Newscorp only had newspapers? Reading not your strong point I see.

The few Newscorp papers in Aus grew the 70% market share from very little through good reporting.