On Wednesday April 26, Reporters Without Borders released its “Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2017 “. “Media Bashing”, conflicts of interest, liberticidal laws, these are the outlines of the report sounding alarm on freedom of the press which continues to suffer from breaches throughout the world, especially in countries branded as models.
“Democracies that have made freedom of the press one of their foundations must remain a model for the rest of the world and not the other way round. By cropping on the fundamental freedom to inform on the pretext of protecting their citizens, democracies risk losing their souls”, deplores Reporters Without Borders. In the ranking of 180 countries, six years after holding first place, Finland was dethroned by Norway due to political pressures and conflicts of interest, says Reporters Without Borders.
And North Korea, unsurprisingly, arrives at the 180th place in the ranking behind Eritrea (179th), which thus gains a place for the first time since 2007. In North Korea, according to Reporters Without Borders, “the simple fact of listening to a radio station based abroad can also be worthy of a stay in concentration camp”. In front of the “infernal trio” (Turkmenistan, Eritrea, North Korea), Syria arrives at the 177th place (since 2014). In this country, since 2011, Bashar al-Assad’s regime has repressed popular protest and has led to a civil and confessional war that threatens freedom of information and its actors.
In the countries which every year, publish reports on human rights where they distribute good and bad marks to the world, freedom of information is undermined in particular by obsession with surveillance and the non-respect of the secrecy of sources. As is the case in the United States (43rd place), when Donald J. Trump came to power, he set in motion ” media bashing”, denigrating the media, and tilting the world to “the era of post-truth, misinformation and falsehood “.
The same finding is true for the United Kingdom, which comes in the 40th place (-2 points). In France (39th place), the problem is that of the independence of journalists, due to the risk of conflicts of interest, with media owners who weigh on the editorial content.
Mali arrives at 116th place
In Africa, where it has become a custom to cut off the Internet during elections and social movements, the situation is nonetheless worrying. Even if the ranking indicates that the score of Africa has evolved by 10.4%. On the continent, after the departure of autocrat Yaya Jammeh, Gambia gained 2 points and returned to the 143rd place: a legislation reform concerning the press is in sight.
In the ranking, Mali (122nd in 2016) arrives at the 116th place. While in the country, the investigation into the assassination in 2013 of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, in Kidal, remains at a standstill. Added to this are pressures on the media. It’s beaten by Niger (61st place) and Burkina Faso (42nd).
Boubacar Sangaré