World Press Freedom Day—Things are Getting Worse

The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 World Press Freedom Day  to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in South Africa in 1991.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also marks World Press Freedom Day each year by bringing together media professionals, press freedom organizations, and UN agencies to assess the state of press freedom worldwide and discuss solutions for addressing challenges. Each conference is centered on a theme related to press freedom, including good governance, media coverage of terrorism, impunity, and the role of media in post-conflict countries.

This year the conference will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—a country rated as having a difficult situation for press freedom.  The theme will be Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections In Times of Disinformation.  The United States will not be in attendance. It withdrew from the organization at the direction of the Trump administration in December of 1970 in protest to UNESCO criticism of the assaults, murders, and jailing of journalists by Israel.  It also repudiated over $600 million in back dues dating to 2011 when the Palestinian Authority was granted full membership in 2011.

So how is it going on the press freedom front these days?  Well the needle on the dial hovers between not so good and terrible.  In fact the press is under greater pressure in more nations than at any time since the Second World War.

At least 95 journalists were killed last year during the course of their work, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).  Nations where war is ongoing including Afghanistan (16), Syria (8), and Yemen dominate the list but Mexico where there is organized drug cartel violence claimed 11, and India where sectarian conflicts and revenge for reporting on rape lost 7 news people.  For the first time the U.S. ranked high on the list with 5 dead in 2018, all the victims of an attack on the Capital Gazette newspaper office in Maryland.

Death threats to American reporters and news organization have skyrocketed as Trump beats his fake news/enemy of the people drum and the far right wing and White nationalist forces listen.  Several news organizations were the victims of bomb scares, and a U.S. Coast Guard captain with a significant private arsenal was arrested before he could carry out armed attacks.

The International Federation of Journalists reports that increasing intolerance to reporting, populism, as well as corruption and crime are now important factors in journalistic contributing “to an environment in which there are more journalists killed for covering their communities, cities and countries, than for reporting in armed conflict zones”.

Among the most notorious killings of journalist in the last year was the torture/murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was slain by agents of the Saudi Crown Prince in that nation’s consulate in Turkey.  Another was journalist Lyra McKee who died on the streets of Londonderry, Northern Ireland reporting on sectarian street fighting. 

Aside from killing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that about 250 journalists were imprisoned in December 2018.  The most repressive states were Turkey (68), China (47), Egypt (25), Saudi Arabia and Eritrea (16 each).

In addition intimidation is a rising problem that deters many from freely reporting the news.  Courtney Radsch, of the CPJ said anti-press rhetoric has become endemic in many countries especially the Philippines and the U.S.  Social media and the internet have added to the issues journalists face.  “Online harassment and its very real threats to journalists, especially women, has compounded the already challenging environment”, she said.

This map of rankings for press freedom was from 2017--Deep red very serious, orange serious, yellow notable problems, light blue satisfactory, dark blue good; Since then the U.S. has slipped to problematic.

Largely due to the deteriorating situation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) downgraded the ranking in its World Press Freedom Index this year from satisfactory to problematic.  

Of course things are still worse in other countries like Russia which have enacted sweeping new laws aimed at fake news—anything the government does not want reported—and banning criticism or disrespect of the government.  China has ramped up its strangle hold on the internet and has retaliated against foreign news agencies critical of the government.  A rising tide of right wing nationalism in Poland and elsewhere in Europe has led to tight media controls and often outright censorship.  Venezuela which was slipping into a civil war and is facing a coup d’etat as I write this has experienced both press suppression by the besieged socialist government and intimidation by supporters of the U.S. recognized winner of the last Presidential election.

It’s a tough time for journalists, but they continue to do their jobs despite obstacles.