BEIRUT: Lebanon dropped eight places on an international Press Freedom Index from 93 to 101 out of 179 countries.

Reporters without borders published the yearly index and said Lebanon’s slight drop was due to the bias surrounding the Syrian conflict. “Its media became more polarized by neighboring Syria’s civil war.

Its journalists are exposed to arbitrary detention and mistreatment,” RSB’s accompanying report said. Over the past decade, Lebanon’s rank has yo-yoed from the rise and fall of attacks on journalists.

Regionally, Lebanon ranked highest among its neighbors, including Israel, which fell 20 places to 112 because of attacks on journalists in the Palestinian territories over the past year. Lebanon was also one of the top Arab countries for press freedoms, second only to Kuwait at 77.