Another Gloomy Press Freedom Report, Bright Spots Scant

Michael Hedges May 3, 2023 - Follow on Twitter

Set aside by the UN General Assembly in 1993, World Press Freedom Day is an annual marker for democracy advocates. Freedom of expression communicated through published and broadcast media is a right afforded to and for all persons. This year May 3rd is the 30th anniversary. Various press and media freedom advocates typically make special representations throughout the week.

Notable press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) always adds detail, often quite blunt, with its annual Press Freedom Index, ranking 180 countries on the status of journalism. It is always widely quoted for its observations as well as numeric place setting. This year the RSF Index noted that for 70% of the ranked countries press freedom is “bad.” It is, sadly, a long term trend as dictatorships continue ascending.

At the top of the 2023 RSF Index, for the seventh year, is Norway. “We are in a very small group,” said Norwegian Press Association secretary general Elin Floberghagen to Journalisten (May 3). “The press freedom ranking is unfortunately gloomy reading, as it has been in recent years. The vast majority of countries in the world have poor or very poor conditions for journalism. It also has a clear connection with the decline of democracy in the same countries.”

As with other rankings being on top is not enough. “Norway is at the top of the press freedom index. We have to use that to raise the issues and challenges on the international agenda,” said government culture and media policy spokesperson Tage Pettersen, separately to Journalisten (May 3). “Even in our immediate areas, in Europe, we unfortunately see that press freedom and freedom of expression are being reduced. Norway must do more to stand up for the population in these countries.”

Ireland jumped into the top 5, second place up from 6th place year on year and 12th in 2021. RSF noted publication of the “long awaited review” of the Defamation Act that may, inevitably, provide relief from SLAPP lawsuits. Also mentioned was the fairly recent divestiture by Denis O’Brien of media holdings opening up Ireland’s media sphere to “greater competition and diversity.” Denmark, Sweden and Finland round out the top five.

Firmly in the top 20 are the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 14th and 17th, respectively, up from 20th and 27th one year on. Greece is again this year the worst ranked within the EU Member States, 107th, between Qatar and Lesotho. RSF cites “arbitrary state surveillance of journalists”, “abusive lawsuits” and the unsolved assassination in 2021 of crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz.

Deteriorating further is press/media freedom in the Russian Federation, falling in the ranking to 164th, between Bangladesh and Turkey, from 155th one year on. Since the "special military operation" in 2022, "almost all independent media have been closed, blocked or declared by "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations", and all others have been censored, said RSF. WSJ correspondent Evan Gershkovich has been in solitary confinement at the notorious Lefortovo prison for the last month.

St. Petersburg business news portal Lenizdat (May 3) observed, additionally, that the countries at the top of the 2023 RSF Index also “lead in the ranking of the happiest countries.” Coincident with World Press Freedom Day, the French Foreign Ministry introduced the Anna Politkovskaya Award for journalistic courage, reported Russian exile news portal Novaya Gazeta (May 3). Ms Politkovskaya extensively covered the Chechen conflict and was murdered in her Moscow apartment building in 2006, a case that remains unsolved.

In the elections have consequences category: the RSF Press Freedom Index ranking for Brazil rose in the year that saw Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva replace Jair Bolsonaro as president. Press freedom in Brazil is now ranked 92nd, up from 110th year on year. Mr. Bolsonaro “regularly insulted journalists and the media and mobilised armies of supporters on social media as part of a finely tuned strategy of coordinated attacks that aimed to discredit the press, which was labelled as an enemy of the state,” said RSF.

The RSF ranking for India “slipped,” said The Hindu (May 3), to 161st from 150th year on year. “The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in ‘the world’s largest democracy’, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right,” noted RSF. The ranking for India in the RSF Security Indicator fell to 172nd, only eight countries ranking worse.

The ranking for Turkey fell to 165th as “the Erdogan administration in Turkey has stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May,” said the RSF report. Turkey is 'a press freedom violations museum' under Erdogan said Turkish journalist and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) representative Ozgur Ogret, to France 24 (May 3). Vietnam, China and North Korea make up the bottom three.

RSF took specific jabs at the current artificial intelligence (AI) craze. "It is the tech industry that allows disinformation to be produced, distributed and amplified," said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire to AFP (May 3). "Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of disinformation. We are less and less able to perceive the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false.” He also gave a special shout-out to Chief Twit Elon Musk for pushing "an arbitrary, payment-based approach to information to the extreme.”

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