Coronavirus pandemic 'amplifies press freedom threats'
21 April, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom all over the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing information on the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its total annual press freedom rankings the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom.
The outbreak had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact persons are stunned and mobilization has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to look at in normal times", RSF secretary general Christophe Deloire told AFP.
The rankings saw few major changes from this past year, with Nordic countries thought to be the most free and isolated states Turkmenistan and North Korea footing the set of 180 countries.
RSF accused China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place respectively -- of censoring major coronavirus outbreaks.
'Information hyper-control'
Alluding to accusations that Beijing concealed the original extent of the outbreak, it said China "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose unwanted effects for the entire world have already been seen through the coronavirus public health crisis".
Europe in addition has not been immune -- Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has passed a particular law on false information that was a "completely disproportionate and coercive measure".
RSF said there was a "clear correlation" between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country's ranking in the index.
While Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row, Finland was again the runner-up.
North Korea took last position from Turkmenistan, and Eritrea stayed Africa's lowest-ranked country at number 178.
The 3rd biggest leap was by Sudan, which rose 16 places to 159th following the removal of president Omar al-Bashir.
France lost two places to rank 32nd, with journalists in the country sometimes the victims of police violence at demonstrations, it said.
Published annually by RSF since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index assesses factors such as media independence, self-censorship, the legal framework and transparency predicated on a questionnaire filled out by experts.
'Chinese-style scenario'
Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been repeatedly criticized for cracking down on press freedom, rose three places to 154th but RSF said this is as a result of "other countries falling" instead of positive change.
It said censorship of the media, especially online media, has been stepped up in Turkey and the country was "more authoritarian than ever before."
Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, in 149th place, can be persevering "efforts to regulate the Internet, using a lot more elaborate methods", it said, citing a law that could permit the country to disconnect the Russian internet from all of those other world.
"The prospect of a Chinese-style scenario [in Russia] is alarming," RSF said.
RSF said "the closure of the national internet" is already a reality in the isolated Central Asian state of Turkmenistan where the few internet surfers can access only an extremely censored version of the web, often in cafes where they must show ID before connecting.
"Just about everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," RSF said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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