Freedom House noted the decline in media freedom in Russia.

International human rights organization Freedom House has prepared a progress report on the state of press freedom in 195 countries around the world. The main theses of the study were published May 1 in anticipation of the Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3.
Last year the situation has deteriorated, note defenders. In particular, Israel, Italy and Hong Kong moved from a group of countries with free media in a group of "partly free." In total 17 per cent of the world's population live in countries with free media.
The most highly appreciated the state of media freedom in Iceland, Finland and Norway. At the end of the list are Myanmar, Turkmenistan and North Korea.
With regard to Russia, following 2008, it fell in the ranking at 174 position with 170-first, which took in 2007, and remains one of the most dangerous countries for media. This is mainly because of the arbitrariness of the authorities, law enforcement officers and criminals, mark in the Freedom House.
The organization has granted said regarding the Russian media of the study, which will be fully published until July 2009. In the report, Freedom House says that journalists in Russia is still not free to cover many, especially the controversial themes and have been persecuted, that leads to the spread of self-censorship.
"The authorities continue to have a strong influence on the media through the state media empire. The government owns two of Russia's 14 daily newspapers, more than 60 percent of more than 45 thousand regional newspapers, and also disposes of all or parts of all six national TV channels and two national radio stations. This volume of media ownership allows the state to give the press prokremlevskoy propaganda "- the report cites RIA Novosti.
"The degree of press freedom in 2008 continued to decline, as the Kremlin continues to be confident that the Soviet style of managing the media facilitates the necessary policy, as well as diverting attention from the responsibility for the widespread corruption and political violence", - concludes Freedom House.