Drastic decline in media freedom worldwide

PARIS: Media freedom suffered a “drastic decline” worldwide last year in part because of extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in its annual evaluation released Thursday.
“There has been an overall deterioration linked to very different factors, with information wars, and action by non-state groups acting like news despots,” the head of the Paris-based group, Christophe Deloire, told AFP.
Pakistan and India stand at the 159tth and 136th position out of the 180 countries evaluated.
The Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index stated that there was an eight percent increase in violations of freedom of information in 180 countries in 2014 compared to the 2013, according to its statistically weighted calculation.
All parties in conflicts raging in the Middle East and Ukraine were waging “a fearsome information war” where media personnel were directly targeted to be killed, captured or pressured to relay propaganda, it said.
The Islamic State group active in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and Cameroon, and criminal organisations in Italy and Latin America all used “fear and reprisals to silence journalists and bloggers who dare to investigate or refuse to act as their mouthpieces,” said the watchdog, known by its French initials RSF.
North Africa and the Middle East contained notable “black holes” in which “entire regions are controlled by non-state groups in which independent information simply does not exist,” the group said.
“The criminalization of blasphemy endangers freedom of information in around half of the world’s countries,” the report said, noting that religious extremists sometimes also go after journalists or bloggers they believe do not sufficiently respect their god or prophet.
China, Syria, North Korea among worst: RSF´s ranking put Iran, China, Syria and North Korea among the countries with the very worst levels of press freedom out of the 180 evaluated.
Repression of journalists in Ukraine during its early-2014 uprising against its pro-Kremlin president, and in Turkey during anti-government demonstrations earned both spots in the bottom quarter of the table. “Police misconduct” during the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong earned that territory a slide to 70th position. The best-rated nations were northern European states such as Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, with New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica also making the top 10.
But some other European countries did not do so well. Italy, for instance, fell 24 spots to 73rd position because of mafia threats and “unjustified defamation suits”. Overall, “the EU appears to be swamped by a certain desire on the part of some member states to compromise on freedom of information,” the report said.
The United States ranked 49, three spots lower than in the previous report, in part because of what RSF said was the US government’s “war on information” against WikiLeaks and others.In South America, Venezuela stood out with a 20-notch fall to a ranking of 137 due to the National Bolivarian Guard opening fire on clearly identified journalists during demonstrations.
Libya dropped 17 places to 154 because of the national chaos that has seen seven journalists murdered and 37 kidnapped. Russia slipped to the 152nd spot after introducing “another string of draconian laws,” website blocking and the extinction of independent media.
“Press freedom... is in retreat on all five continents,” RSF declared, claiming its indicators were “incontestable”.Following is the ranking of 180 countries and territories evaluated by the RSF for press freedom in its latest annual report, from best to worst:
1. Finland 2. Norway 3. Denmark 4. Netherlands 5. Sweden 6. New Zealand 7. Austria 8. Canada 9. Jamaica 10. Estonia 11. Ireland 12. Germany 13. Czech Republic 14. Slovakia 15. Belgium 16. Costa Rica 17. Namibia 18. Poland 19. Luxembourg 20. Switzerland 21. Iceland 22. Ghana 23. Uruguay 24. Cyprus 25. Australia 26. Portugal 27. Liechtenstein 28. Latvia 29. Suriname 30. Belize
31. Lithuania 32. Andorra 33. Spain 34. United Kingdom 35. Slovenia 36. Cape Verde 37. Organization of Eastern Caribbean States 38. France 39. South Africa 40. Samoa 41. Trinidad and Tobago 42. Botswana 43. Chile 44. Tonga 45. El Salvador 46. Burkina Faso 47. Niger 48. Malta 49. United States 50. Comoros 51. Taiwan 52. Romania 53. Haiti 54. Mongolia 55. Mauritania 56. Papua New Guinea 57. Argentina 58. Croatia 59. Malawi 60. South Korea 61. Japan 62. Guyana 63. Dominican Republic 64. Madagascar 65. Hungary 66. Bosnia and Herzegovina 67. Serbia 68. Mauritius 69. Georgia 70. Hong Kong 71. Senegal 72. Moldova 73. Italy 74. Nicaragua 75. Tanzania 76. Northern Cyprus 77. Lesotho 78. Armenia 79. Sierra Leone 80. Togo 81. Guinea-Bissau 82. Albania 83. Panama 84. Benin 85. Mozambique 86. Ivory Coast 87. Kosovo 88. Kyrgyzstan 89. Liberia 90. Kuwait 91. Greece 92. Peru 93. Fiji 94. Bolivia 95. Gabon 96. Seychelles 97. Uganda 98. Lebanon 99. Brazil 100. Kenya 101. Israel 102. Guinea 103. East Timor 104. Bhutan 105. Nepal 106. Bulgaria 107. Republic of the Congo 108. Ecuador 109. Paraguay 110. Central African Republic 111. Nigeria 112. Maldives 113. Zambia 114. Montenegro 115. Qatar 116. Tajikistan 117. Macedonia 118. Mali 119. Algeria 120. United Arab Emirates 121. Brunei 122. Afghanistan 123. Angola 124. Guatemala 125. South Sudan 126. Tunisia 127. Oman 128. Colombia 129. Ukraine
130. Morocco 131. Zimbabwe 132. Honduras 133. Cameroon 134. Thailand 135. Chad 136. India 137. Venezuela 138. Indonesia 139. Cambodia 140. Palestinian Territories 141. Philippines 142. Ethiopia 143. Jordan 144. Myanmar 145. Burundi 146. Bangladesh 147. Malaysia 148. Mexico 149. Turkey 150. Democratic Republic of Congo 151. Gambia 152. Russia 153. Singapore 154. Libya 155. Swaziland 156. Iraq 157. Belarus 158. Egypt 159. Pakistan 160. Kazakhstan 161. Rwanda 162. Azerbaijan 163. Bahrain 164. Saudi Arabia 165. Sri Lanka 166. Uzbekistan 167. Equatorial Guinea 168. Yemen 169. Cuba 170. Djibouti 171. Laos 172. Somalia 173. Iran 174. Sudan 175. Vietnam 176. China 177. Syria 178. Turkmenistan 179. North Korea 180. Eritrea