A Dark Year for Press Freedom

2013 was the darkest year of the last decade in terms of the freedom of the press.

Corina Cristea, 11.07.2014, 12:02

2013 was the darkest year of the last decade in terms of the freedom of the press. This was especially true of Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, but also the US, when it came to issues of national security. A Freedom House report shows that 44% of the world population lives in regions where there is no freedom of the press, while 42% lives in areas where freedom of the press is limited. The report said, “We see declines in media freedom on a global level, with both governments and private actors attacking reporters, blocking their physical access to newsworthy events, censoring content, and ordering politically motivated firings of journalists.”

The document also shows that a large part of the press continues to be used by owners for political and economic gain. The best situation can be found in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, while the worst situation is found in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and North Korea. China is also close behind, and India fares badly as well, which is quite significant given that the two put together have almost a third of the Earth’s population. Russia cannot boast free media, and Freedom House reports that in the United States things worsened in 2013 as compared to 2012, because of limited distribution of information to journalists and increasing numbers of lawsuits against them. Seventy-one journalists were killed, 800 arrested, and over 2,000 assaulted in 2013, according to the international organizations gathered together on World Press Freedom Day.

The EC, which this year launched four special projects to encourage freedom of the press, spoke about the Freedom House report through its digital agenda commissioner, Ryan Heath. He said the Commission was proud that Europe has some of the freest countries in the world in terms of freedom of the press, and pledged to do everything in its power to support freedom of the press. It is worrying, however, the EC official added, that independent organizations have established that some countries in Europe do not yet have the standards that we would all like to see. The EU has only limited powers when it comes to this issue, since this is not simply a question of legislation, but one of culture and professionalism in the journalistic community, Heath explained.

In Romania, which Freedom House placed at the middle of the list, Active Watch published yet another report on this issue. The head of the local organization, Mircea Toma, told us about the worst problems facing the Romanian press:

Mircea Toma: “Media owners are imposing their own political and economic agenda on the media institutions they control. This is information that manipulates, that causes behavior favoring the small profiteers. The most important means of reacting against the danger of manipulation is to consult a variety of media products from various media groups. You can buy three or four pieces of information, and if they conflict, then you have to ask yourself questions, see where the truth actually is.”

The FreeEx report also reads, “Romanian media institutions continue to be politicized and affected by strong business interests that undermine the impartiality and freedom of the press.”

A new situation presented in the report on press freedom is that of football coverage, which was pushed towards a positive image on football clubs. Another issue is that some media institutions and some journalists are pressing colleagues to soften their coverage of them, and threaten with legal action. At the same time, some media institutions are using freedom of expression abusively, to bully people, social and political groups, as well as the judicial system. FreeEx coordinator Razvan Martin told us about the current situation in Romania:

Razvan Martin: “The press is extremely fragmented, incapable of imposing a set of professional values and norms, incapable of fighting for its rights, and is losing credibility. Journalists are extremely vulnerable in relation to management, and this makes their professional rights very vulnerable, especially the right to freedom of expression, which is badly tampered with by the special interests of owners.”

In its message on World Press Day, the UN said that journalists should be able to work in a safe environment, free of pressure and intimidation.