Reporters Without Borders - not independent but "strictly linked to US foreign policy" - TruePublica
Reporters Without Borders – not independent but “strictly linked to US foreign policy”
Reporters Without Borders has published the latest 2016 report on press freedom where Britain has fallen yet again with the organisation making the following statement about press freedom in Britain:
“Terrorist attacks have led to the adoption of draconian
security legislation. The government reacted to the London public
transport bombings in 2005 with a Terrorism Act the following year that
restricts freedom of expression. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers
Act (RIPA) adopted in 2000 allows the authorities to obtain the phone
records of journalists in cases of threats to national security. Worse
still, despite a law protecting the confidentiality of sources, the
police have since 1984 been able to ask the courts to order media
outlets to hand over unpublished journalistic source material “in the
interests of justice.”
It is hardly surprising that Britain has fallen 4 places in 2016
behind such countries as; Tonga, Belize, OECS (Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States), Samoa, Ghana, Suriname, Namibia, Jamaica, with
Burkino Faso and Botswana just behind, given recent legislative actions
by the Conservative government since 2010.
The Guardian revealed in January 2015 that
the British intelligence agency GCHQ described journalists as a
“potential threat to security” and that huge quantities of emails of
many journalists were among the interceptions that went as far back as
2008. It was only the result of the Edward Snowden leaks that as many as
70,000 emails from journalists captured by Britain’s surveillance
agency became known.
On the 15th October, Gordon Raynor, Chief Reporter at The Telegraph said–
“Investigative journalism will be stopped dead in its tracks and local
newspapers may be driven out of business when new laws restricting
Britain’s free press come into force next month.” He continues – Media
organisations face “the most substantial threat to press freedom in the
modern era” as a result of the “menacing” laws passed in the wake of the
Leveson Inquiry.
An independent report into the implications of the Crime and Courts Act,
which came into force on November 3, says that The Telegraph’s landmark
investigation into what turned out to be the most explosive political
scandal in decades over MPs’ expenses would have been all but impossible under the new regime.
Britain sitting at number 38 flatters reality.
‘Freedom of Press’ is published by the US-based Freedom House, an NGO
established in 1941 that has been ranking countries worldwide since
1980 in relation to democracy, human rights and press freedom. In May
2014 it reported that Britain has slipped down the global rankings for
freedom of the press to 36th place.
According to Freedom House, “only 13 percent of the world’s
population enjoys a free press—that is, where coverage of political news
is robust, the safety of journalists is guaranteed, state intrusion in
media affairs is minimal, and the press is not subject to onerous legal
or economic pressures.” Although Britain is ranked as safe in press
freedom terms one has to wonder given the very heavy handed behaviour by
the government at The Guardian over the Snowden files and state surveillance over journalists more widely.
