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Norway has topped Reporters Without Borders' annual press freedom index for the fourth consecutive year
https://www.dw.com/en/norway-tops-press-freedom-index-iran-and-iraq-drop-over-coronavirus/a-53194619
Imagine having had a lower ranking for freedom of the press than North Korea.
Amidst all the upheaval in the Western hemisphere over the past four years and then 2020's COVID-19 chaos, I wonder how many stories of oppression from places like Turkmenistan and apparently Eritrea have been cut from the front pages of major news outlets.
I guess that's one of the invisible consequences of so much disarray; we're understandably so focused on the barrage of bad news within our borders that the struggles beyond them are forgotten.
It's probably a bad sign that literally the only news I've heard out of Turkmenistan (for example) in the past five years came from John Oliver's piece on their president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. The video is great but regrettably light on pertinent information about Berdimuhamedow's despotism (it does go into great depth on his bizarre fascination with horses, however).
You know, with all due respect, but these “awesome Scandinavia” articles are getting kinda boring. In other “news”, Americans are patriotic, Brazilians love soccer and Italians make a lot of pasta.
Unless we’re talking about a long, nuanced and possibly original approach, I find changes in pattern way more interesting.