Paris  - While the election of US President Barack Obama has led to greater press freedom in the United States, many European countries have seen their media rights continue to decline over the past year, the group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Tuesday.

In addition, Israel's 2008 military offensive in the Gaza Strip has led to a severe downturn in media freedom for Israelis, the Paris-based media watchdog organization said.

"It is disturbing to see European democracies such as France, Italy and Slovakia fall steadily in the ranking year after year," RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said.

"Europe should be setting an example as regards civil liberties. How can you condemn human rights violations abroad if you do not behave irreproachably at home?"

In RSF's eighth annual world press freedom index, France fell eight places in the rankings, to 43rd, Slovakia plunged 37 places, to 44th, and Italy lost five spots, to 49th.

According to RSF, the main threat to journalistic freedom in some of these countries comes from new legislation.

One law, adopted by Slovakia, has introduced the "dangerous concept" of an automatic right of response by those criticized in the media and has given the culture minister "considerable influence over publications," RSF said.

The loss of press freedom was even more drastic in Israel, which sank 47 places, to 93rd on the world press freedom index in 12 months.

"This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st)," the RSF said.

The organization charged that "Israel has begun to use the same methods internally as it does outside its own territory. RSF registered five arrests of journalists, some of them completely illegal."

On the other hand, the US climbed an impressive 20 places on the index, to 20th, primarily because of Obama's presence in the White House.

"Barack Obama's election as president and the fact that he has a less hawkish approach than his predecessor have had a lot to do with this," RSF said.

Other countries where media freedoms improved over the period September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009, were Ghana (27th), Uruguay (29th), Mali (30rd) and South Africa (33rd).

The index was led by a quintet of northern European countries - Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. (dpa)