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Abdulqader al-Jassem.
The media watchdog said Jassem, 54, who is a lawyer, journalist and blogger, has been jailed twice following accusations lodged by "prominent figures with close ties to the regime."
"This contradicts the authorities' stated desire to project an image of being the leading democracy of the Persian Gulf," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said after releasing the 2010 world press freedom index.
Jassem faces several court cases and in one of them he is charged with attempting to overthrow the government. He was detained for 49 days in May and for 11 days in November.
Most of the cases against him were filed by Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah over slander charges.
Qatar also dropped 27 places to 121 position on a list of 178 countries, RSF said, without elaborating.
Bahrain slipped from 119th to 144th place as a result of the "growing number of imprisonments and trials, notably against bloggers and netizens," RSF said in a statement.
Oman ranked 124th, down 17 places from last year, while the UAE dropped just one place to 87.
Bucking the trend, conservative Saudi Arabia went up the list six places to 157, but remained in last place among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) alliance, RSF said.
RSF compiles its annual table by scoring each country in the light of 43 criteria measuring violence and persecution against journalists, censorship and self-censorship, and the financial and legal independence of media.
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"This contradicts the authorities' stated desire to project an image of being the leading democracy of the Persian Gulf," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said after releasing the 2010 world press freedom index.
Jassem faces several court cases and in one of them he is charged with attempting to overthrow the government. He was detained for 49 days in May and for 11 days in November.
Most of the cases against him were filed by Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah over slander charges.
Qatar also dropped 27 places to 121 position on a list of 178 countries, RSF said, without elaborating.
Bahrain slipped from 119th to 144th place as a result of the "growing number of imprisonments and trials, notably against bloggers and netizens," RSF said in a statement.
Oman ranked 124th, down 17 places from last year, while the UAE dropped just one place to 87.
Bucking the trend, conservative Saudi Arabia went up the list six places to 157, but remained in last place among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) alliance, RSF said.
RSF compiles its annual table by scoring each country in the light of 43 criteria measuring violence and persecution against journalists, censorship and self-censorship, and the financial and legal independence of media.
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