Press freedom in times of pandemic
Audio 02:25
Screenshot of the NGO Reporters Without Borders website.
© rsf.org
By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow
6 mins
The World Press Freedom Index was released this week.
It shows that the exercise of journalism is “
totally
” or “
partially blocked
” in 132 of the 180 states assessed by Reporters Without Borders.
Publicity
Of the 180 states in this year's ranking, there are 73 where freedom of information is "
seriously hampered
" and 59 where it is at least restricted, which leads RSF to say that in nearly three quarters of the countries , this "
vaccine
" that is journalism is not active against the virus of disinformation. At the bottom of the ranking are authoritarian regimes: Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, China, Djibouti, Vietnam, Iran, Syria, Laos, Cuba and Saudi Arabia. And among the good students, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands but also Costa Rica, Jamaica, New Zealand or Portugal.
France comes in 34th place, just after the United Kingdom.
The prosecution has just opened an investigation after a complaint against X filed with RSF by Morgane Large, a journalist from a Breton radio station, for malicious acts, even sabotage such as the unbolting of a wheel of her car, after the broadcast of a documentary in which she testified against the agro-chemical industry.
Around the world, the pandemic has often been the pretext for restrictions on access to information sources in the field.
In Brazil and Venezuela, Presidents Bolsonaro and Maduro have been promoting their own cure for Covid-19.
In Iran, journalists have been convicted of questioning the official truth about the death toll.
And in Egypt, nothing should come out apart from the figures of the Ministry of Health.
In Africa, where half of the states are in red or black on the RSF map, authorities have sought to control information in 23 countries. This means that instead of being seen as allies in facing crises, "
African journalists are too often seen as enemies to be controlled or repressed
", according to RSF. Arrest of an investigative journalist in Botswana for updating a scandal linked to the epidemic on the use of public money, information blackout on Covid-19 in Tanzania, turn of the screw legislative with laws against false news in South Africa, Benin or Niger ... Abuses and arbitrary detentions are still numerous, especially in Eritrea.
Finally, since the military coup in February, Burma has been a place of “
persecution
” of journalists with arbitrary arrests and the broadcast on the television news of lists of personalities sought after for their contribution to information on the democratic movement.
Among them, at least 19 journalists.
A ten-year throwback, according to RSF.
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