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WASHINGTON Despite an ever-expanding number of ways to put out news and information, a new report says the crackdown on media freedoms around the world has been unrelenting. Freedom of the Press 2014 says global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade, with major setbacks in places that had been making progress only a few years ago. Just about everywhere, simply getting the news is getting harder. The non-profit democracy advocate Freedom House reported that media freedom is on the decline worldwide. We see attempts to control or manipulate the message, so increased use of propaganda, of trying to influence editorial content in advance. Then what we also see is a crackdown and harassment of bloggers and people who are using these mediums to get out information, said project director Karin Karlekar. Karlekar said media freedoms eroded so badly in 2013 that only one out of every six people worldwide had access to a Free media. In many areas that saw declines, she added, governments did not act alone. There were changes in media ownership at key outlets. And then we saw changes in editorial tone, we saw pressure being placed on journalists, said Karlerkar. North Korea was ranked the worst of the 197 countries and territories rated by Freedom House. Iran was also near the bottom despite a slight improvement during its presidential election. Syria, where journalists have been killed and kidnapped, was near the bottom as well. The Middle East as a whole saw the worst press freedom declines, led by Egypt, where the military-backed government cracked down hard, targeting journalists and putting them on trial.

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Report: Media Freedoms Worldwide at a 10-Year-Low