Hatred of journalism threatens democracies

PARIS: The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday, reflects growing animosity towards journalists. The annual report reflects the state of journalism around the globe. It says 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 report places Pakistan is at No 139, two points below Myanmar (137) and a point below India (138). The RSF report says: “The climate of hatred is steadily more visible in the Index, which evaluates the level of press freedom in 180 countries each year. Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as Turkey (down two at 157th) and Egypt (161st), where “media-phobia” is now so pronounced that journalists are routinely accused of terrorism and all those who don’t offer loyalty are arbitrarily imprisoned. “

More and more democratically-elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy’s 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 “enemies of the people,” the term once used by Joseph Stalin.

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 “are not exempted from assassination.” 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’s pay. In each of these countries, at least four journalists were gunned down in cold blood in the space of a year.

Norway tops the list as the country where journalists have the most freedom, followed by Sweden and the Netherlands. North Korea is at the bottom of the list, just below Eritrea and Turkmenistan.

The Gambia has seen the biggest improvement in press freedom, rising 21 spots to 122 out of 180. It is followed by South Korea and Greece, which rose 20 and 14 places respectively.

Malta, Mauritania and the Czech Republic saw the biggest drops, dropping 18, 17 and 11 places respectively.

"The unleashing of hatred towards journalists is one of the worst threats to democracies," RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement. "Political leaders who fuel loathing for reporters bear heavy responsibility because they undermine the concept of public debate based on facts instead of propaganda," he added. "To dispute the legitimacy of journalism today is to play with extremely dangerous political fire."

The report also analysed press freedom in five regions, with the Middle East and North Africa region being the worst for journalists. Wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen play a big part in this, but Egypt, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are also singled out as countries where it is extremely hard for journalists to do their job.

Europe, the safest region for journalists, has seen the steepest decline in the regional rankings. Overall, the 2018 report concludes, global press freedom is in a worse state than it was last year and a record number of countries this year have been classified as having "very bad" freedom of the press.