UK Ranks Below Jamaica, Latvia and Ghana for Press Freedom – Global Study

Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond
From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas
Editorial Note: Reporters Without Borders is a know “Pro-US imperialism” NGO but it still make you raise eyebrows when you see their feeders being so low in the rankings they pay for. Having Venezuela in position 148 (below Colombia, Mexico and Central American countries) when journalist work in Venezuela is safer than in any other country in Latin America and there have not been a single journalist killed in decades in this country, deporting ONLY 3-4 foreign journalist working without due permits while the country is being victims of the US unconventional war since January, are just some evidences of how biased this NGO is.
âToo often steps taken in the name of national security trample press freedom,â says advocacy group on British media landscape
By Adam Forrest
The UK remains one of the worst counties in western Europe for freedom of the press, according to the latest report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Ranked 33rd in the list of 180 countries, Britain was placed behind Jamaica, Surinam, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Latvia and Lichtenstein in the advocacy groupâs 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt appointed Amal Clooney as special envoy on media freedom earlier this month as part of a global campaign on reporting restrictions. Yet the UK is ranked lower than any of its western European neighbours except Italy.
RELATED CONTENT: Debunking All The Assange Smears
âWe should hold ourselves to a higher standard, and seek to be one of the best, not worst-performing countries in western Europe,â said RSFâs UK director Rebecca Vincent. âToo often steps taken in the name of national security trample press freedom.â
The US slipped three places to 48th in the world as a result of its increasingly hostile climate towards journalists. The report said that never before have US reporters been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security for protection.
The latest annual report offered a bleak assessment of reporting freedoms around the world, with experts finding a decline in the number of countries regarded as safe for journalists.
Only 24 per cent of the 180 countries were classified as âgoodâ or âfairly goodâ for the press â a two per cent decline â while over three-quarters of the world is now considered âproblematicâ, âdifficultâ or âvery seriousâ for media freedoms.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said: âDemocracy is in great danger. Halting this cycle of fear and intimidation is a matter of the utmost urgency of all people.â
RELATED CONTENT: Orinoco Tribune LinkedIn Account Frozen
He added: âIf the political debate slides surreptitiously or openly towards a civil war-style atmosphere, in which journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger.â
Norway is ranked first for press freedoms for the third consecutive year and Turkmenistan replaced North Korea in last place.
The studyâs authors said the level of violence used in some parts of the world to persecute journalists who aggravate authorities âno longer seems to know any limitsâ. They said the Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggiâs murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October sent a âchilling messageâ.
The Americas saw the greatest deterioration of any part of the world during the last year. Nicaragua fell 24 places from the previous yearâs list due to attacks on journalists covering protests against President Daniel Ortega.
El Salvador saw the regionâs second steepest fall â 15 places â because journalists suffered armed attacks, harassment and intimidation by politicians, according to the report.
There were also poor performances in Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico. The latter is one of the worldâs deadliest countries for the media, with at least 10 journalists killed in 2018.
The EU and Balkans registered the second biggest deterioration in press freedoms, but it remains the region where press freedom is respected most and which is the safest for journalists.
According to a separate report recently published by RSF, 80 journalists were killed around the world in 2018, up from 65 in 2017.
The groupâs annual index assesses six separate benchmarks and assigns each country a score calculated from answers to a questionnaire in 20 languages that is completed by international experts.
Earlier this year a report by the Freedom House think tank found an âalarmingâ decline in democracy across the world, as a growing number of countries move towards authoritarian rule.
Its report found 2018 was the 13th consecutive year of deteriorating political freedoms around the globe.