19/04/2019
Turkey, the world's biggest jailer of journalists, was among the worst countries.
RSF said "repression continued to tighten on the few critical outlets that remain", with its biggest media group taken over by a pro-government conglomerate.
It has also the dubious honour of being the only country to prosecute a journalist for reporting the Paradise Papers offshore investment leaks.
Russia, which the report branded as another "pioneer of repression", continued to slide down the table to 149th place.
Africa's ups and downs
Another former Soviet republic, Turkmenistan, has sunk to the very bottom of the ranking, supplanting North Korea because of its "disgraceful... and relentless" repression of reporters.
Its near neighbour Tajikistan, where most of the independent media has been forced to close, fell 12 places, sitting just above Libya, Egypt, and Azerbaijan.
But the news was not all bad from the old Soviet empire, with Armenia jumping 19 places to 61st after its "Velvet Revolution" and Kyrgyzstan also climbing 15 after it ended travel bans and the threat of levying "astronomical damages" on reporters.
The previously dire situation across the border in Uzbekistan has also somewhat improved due to the "thaw that began after dictator Islam Karimov's death in 2016", the report added.
But there was little to cheer about in China, which remains rooted to the bottom of the list with the fourth worst record.
Totalitarian Eritrea was even worse. Indeed some of the sharpest falls in press freedom were recorded in Africa.
"Journalists are being attacked with impunity" in Tanzania since President John "Bulldozer" Magufuli came to power in 2015, RSF warned, branding him a "press freedom predator".
The east African country fell 25 places, three more than Mauritania, which has locked up a blogger for condemning the use of religion to justify the slavery that is still practised in the vast Saharan country.
But the continent also saw some spectacular progress. Ethiopia has jumped 40 places under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while The Gambia shot up 30, continuing the improvement after the departure of dictator Yahya Jammeh.
Angola too has seen steady gains.
The best-performing countries continue to be in Scandinavia with Norway, Finland, and Sweden taking the top three places.
