Cuba Ranks 191 of 196 in Press Freedom

Capitol Hill Cubans

According to Freedom House's 2013 Freedom of the Press Index, Cuba is tied with Iran as the 191st worst oppressor of press freedom in the world.

Only five countries ranked slightly worse: Belarus, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, North Korea and Turkmenistan.

According to the report:

The world’s eight worst-rated countries, with scores of between 90 and 100 points, are Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In these states, independent media are either nonexistent or barely able to operate, the press acts as a mouthpiece for the regime, citizens’ access to unbiased information is severely limited, and dissent is crushed through imprisonment, torture, and other forms of  repression. In 2012, conditions worsened in Cuba, which fell from 91 to 92 points, due to an increase in the number of arbitrary detentions, sometimes violent, of independent journalists.