Reporters Without Borders published their flagship annual ‘World
Press Freedom Index’ on Thursday (18 April), revealing that worldwide,
authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media, while
in Europe, decline of press freedom goes hand in hand with an erosion
of institutions.
The RSF ranking, which
evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories every
year, shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence,
contributing to an increase in fear. The number of countries regarded as
safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to
decline.
Many authoritarian regimes have fallen in the Index. They include
Venezuela (down five at 148th), where journalists have been the victims
of arrests and violence by security forces, and Russia (down one at
149th), where the Kremlin has used arrests, arbitrary searches and
draconian laws to step up the pressure on independent media and the
Internet. At the bottom of the Index, both Vietnam (176th) and China
(177th) have fallen one place, Eritrea (up 1 at 178th) is third from
last, despite making peace with its neighbour Ethiopia, and Turkmenistan
(down two at 180th) is now last, replacing North Korea (up one at
179th).
File photo. Candles are
placed during a march in memory of murdered Slovak journalist Jan
Kuciak in front of the Slovak government building in Bratislava,
Slovakia, 28 February 2018. [Matej Kalina/EPA/EFE]
