The 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that journalism, the main vaccine against disinformation, is completely or partly blocked in 130 out of 180 countries ranked by the organisation.
By Antony Mutunga
For the last decade, journalists and reporters have drawn the short straw as press freedom remains highly fragile in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). From dealing with dictators and authoritarian governments to arbitrary censorship, especially on social media platforms, journalism has been totally blocked or seriously impeded. And, as the coronavirus rages, additional restrictions have further constricted the world or journalists, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The report, “The 2021 World Press Freedom Index” details that at a time when journalists need to keep their audiences informed about the global pandemic, many African governments have resorted to control coverage of the pandemic, going as far as to facilitate or directly contribute to hostility and mistrust towards those trying to provide objective and accurate news. In fact, the arrests and attacks on journalists had increased between March and May 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019.
The report, which evaluates the press freedom situation in 180 countries and territories annually, shows that journalism is totally blocked or seriously impeded in 73 countries and constrained in 59 others, which together represent 73% of the countries evaluated. These countries are classified as having “very bad,” “bad” or “problematic” environments for press freedom, and are identified accordingly in black, red or orange on the World Press Freedom map.
The Index data reflect a dramatic deterioration in people’s access to information and an increase in obstacles to news coverage. The coronavirus pandemic has been used as grounds to block journalists’ access to information sources and reporting in the field. Will this access be restored when the pandemic is over? The data shows that journalists are finding it increasingly hard to investigate and report sensitive stories, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
“The production and distribution of journalistic products are too often blocked by political, economic, technological and, sometimes, even cultural factors. In response to the virality of disinformation across borders, on digital platforms and via social media, journalism provides the most effective means of ensuring that public debate is based on a diverse range of established facts,” says RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire
There has been no significant change in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, which maintained last place in the regional rankings. In Algeria (146th) and Morocco (down 3 at 136th), the judicial system is being used to help silence journalists, while the Middle East’s most authoritarian countries – Saudi Arabia (170th), Egypt (166th) and Syria (up 1 at 173rd) – have taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to reinforce their methods for gagging the media and to reaffirm their monopoly on news and information. In this region, still the toughest and most dangerous for journalists, the pandemic has exacerbated the problems that have long plagued the press, which was already in its death throes.
In countries such as Tanzania ( 124th) and Burundi (137th), the press remains muzzled. In Tanzania, former president John Magufuli called the virus a western conspiracy and suggested the country had kept it at bay by force of prayer. As a result, the government put up a new regulation that publishing unapproved information about the outbreak of a deadly or contagious disease or reproducing content from foreign media without prior permission was punishable by imprisonment.
In Zimbabwe (130th) and Sudan (159th), sluggish reforms have seen the press continue to face the same challenges they already did under former dictatorial regimes.
Even though countries such as Namibia (24th) and Ghana (30th) have done well in protecting the rights of journalists, Africa remains to be the world’s most dangerous continent for journalists. Kenya (102nd), despite expanding its media space, faces the same difficulties as some of the other countries in the danger zone, including Uganda (125th) and Rwanda (156th).
RSF’s global indicator – its measure of the level of media freedom worldwide – is only 0.3% lower in the 2021 Index than it was in 2020. However, the past year’s relative stability should not divert attention from the fact that it has deteriorated by 12% since this indicator was created in 2013.
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