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<\/a><\/p>\nMore and more democratically-elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy\u2019s essential underpinning, but as an adversary to which they openly display their aversion. The United States, the country of the First Amendment, has fallen again in the Index under Donald Trump, this time two places to 45th. A media-bashing enthusiast, Trump has referred to reporters \u201cenemies of the people,\u201d the term once used by Joseph Stalin.<\/p>\n
The line separating verbal violence from physical violence is dissolving. In the Philippines (down six at 133rd), President Rodrigo Duterte not only constantly insults reporters but has also warned them that they \u201care not exempted from assassination.\u201d In India (down two at 138th), hate speech targeting journalists is shared and amplified on social networks, often by troll armies in Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s pay. In each of these countries, at least four journalists were gunned down in cold blood in the space of a year.<\/p>\n
Verbal violence from politicians against the media is also on the rise in Europe, although it is the region that respects press freedom most. In the Czech Republic (down 11 at 34th), President Milos Zeman turned up at a press conference with a fake Kalashnikov inscribed with the words \u201cfor journalists.\u201d In Slovakia, (down 10 at 27th), then Prime Minister Robert Fico called journalists \u201cfilthy anti-Slovak prostitutes\u201d and \u201cidiotic hyenas.\u201d A Slovak reporter, J\u00e1n Kuciak, was shot dead in his home in February 2018, just four months after another European journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was killed by a targeted car-bombing in Malta (down 18 at 65th).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unleashing of hatred towards journalists is one of the worst threats to democracies,\u201d RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. \u201cPolitical leaders who fuel loathing for reporters bear heavy responsibility because they undermine the concept of public debate based on facts instead of propaganda. To dispute the legitimacy of journalism today is to play with extremely dangerous political fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norway and North Korea, first and last again in 2018
\nIn this year\u2019s Index, Norway is first for the second year running, followed \u2013 as it was last year \u2013 by Sweden (2nd). Although traditionally respectful of press freedom, the Nordic countries have also been affected by the overall decline. Undermined by a case threatening the confidentiality of a journalist\u2019s sources, Finland (down one at 4th) has fallen for the second year running, surrendering its third place to the Netherlands. At the other end of the Index, North Korea (180th) is still last.<\/p>\n
The Index also reflects the growing influence of \u201cstrongmen\u201d and rival models. After stifling independent voices at home, Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia (148th) is extending its propaganda network by means of media outlets such as RT and Sputnik, while Xi Jinping\u2019s China (176th) is exporting its tightly controlled news and information model in Asia. Their relentless suppression of criticism and dissent provides support to other countries near the bottom of the Index such as Vietnam (175th), Turkmenistan (178th) and Azerbaijan (163rd).<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s not despots, it\u2019s war that helps turn countries into news and information black holes \u2013 countries such as Iraq (down two at 160th), which this year joined those at the very bottom of the Index where the situation is classified as \u201cvery bad.\u201d There have never been so many countries that are coloured black on the press freedom map.<\/p>\n
Breakdown of countries by their situation<\/p>\n
Regional indicators worsening
\nIt\u2019s in Europe, the region where press freedom is the safest, that the regional indicator has worsened most this year. Four of this year\u2019s five biggest falls in the Index are those of European countries: Malta (down 18 at 65th), Czech Republic (down 11 at 34th), Serbia (down 10 at 76th) and Slovakia (down 10 at 27th). The European model\u2019s slow erosion is continuing (see our regional analysis: Journalists are murdered in Europe as well).<\/p>\n
REGIONAL INDICATORS<\/p>\n
Ranked second (but more than 10 points worse than Europe), the Americas contain a wide range of situations (see our regional analyses US falls as Canada rises and Mixed performance in Latin America). Violence and impunity continue to feed fear and self-censorship in Central America. Mexico (147th) became the world\u2019s second deadliest country for journalists in 2017, with 11 killed. Thanks to President\u2019s Maduro\u2019s increasingly authoritarian excesses, Venezuela (143rd) dropped six places, the region\u2019s biggest fall. On the other hand, Ecuador (92nd) jumped 13 places, the hemisphere\u2019s greatest rise, because tension between the authorities and privately-owned media abated. In North America, Donald Trump\u2019s USA slipped another two places while Justin Trudeau\u2019s Canada rose four and entered the top 20 at 18th place, a level where the situation is classified as \u201cfairly good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Africa came next, with a score that is slightly better than in 2017 but also contained a wide range of internal variation (see our regional analysis The dangers of reporting in Africa). Frequent Internet cuts, especially in Cameroon (129th) and Democratic Republic of Congo (154th), combined with frequent attacks and arrests are the region\u2019s latest forms of censorship. Mauritania (72nd) suffered the region\u2019s biggest fall (17 places) after adopting a law under which blasphemy and apostasy are punishable by death even if the accused repents. But a more promising era for journalists may result from the departure of three of Africa\u2019s most predatory presidents, in Zimbabwe (up two as 126th), Angola (up four at 121st) and Gambia, whose 21-place jump to 122nd was Africa\u2019s biggest.<\/p>\n
In the Asia-Pacific region, still ranked fourth in the Index, South Korea jumped 20 places to 43rd, the Index\u2019s second biggest rise, after Moon Jae-In\u2019s election as president turned the page on a bad decade for press freedom. North Asia\u2019s democracies are struggling to defend their models against an all-powerful China that shamelessly exports its methods for silencing all criticism. Cambodia (142nd) seems dangerously inclined to take the same path as China after closing dozens of independent media outlets and plunging ten places, one of the biggest falls in the region (see our regional analysis Asia-Pacific democracies threatened by China\u2019s media control model).<\/p>\n
The former Soviet countries and Turkey continue to lead the worldwide decline in press freedom (see our regional analysis Historic decline in press freedom in ex-Soviet states, Turkey). Almost two-thirds of the region\u2019s countries are ranked somewhere near or below the 150th position in the Index and most are continuing to fall. They include Kyrgyzstan (98th), which registered one of the Index\u2019s biggest falls (nine places) after a year with a great deal of harassment of the media including astronomic fines for \u201cinsulting the head of state.\u201d In light of such a wretched performance, it is no surprise that the region\u2019s overall indicator is close to reaching that of Middle East\/North Africa.<\/p>\n
According to the indicators used to measure the year-by-year changes, it is the Middle East\/North Africa region that has registered the biggest decline in Media freedom (see our regional analyses Middle East riven by conflicts, political clashes and Journalism sorely tested in North Africa). The continuing wars in Syria (117th) and Yemen (down one at 167th) and the terrorism charges still being used in Egypt (161st), Saudi Arabia (down one at 169th) and Bahrain (down two at 166th) continue to make this the most difficult and dangerous region for journalists to operate.<\/p>\n
Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of media freedom in 180 countries, including the level of pluralism, media independence, the environment and self-censorship, the legal framework, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information. It does not evaluate government policy.<\/p>\n
The global indicator and the regional indicators are calculated on the basis of the scores assigned to each country. These country scores are calculated from answers to a questionnaire in 20 languages that is completed by experts around the world, supported by a qualitative analysis. The scores and indicators measure constraints and violations, so the higher the figure, the worse the situation. Because of growing awareness of the Index, it is an extremely useful advocacy tool.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris, France…From Reporters without Borders…”The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies. The climate of hatred is steadily more visible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/carte_cp_0.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}