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Media freedom is in dire health in a record number of countries, according to the latest annual snapshot that warns that disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism.
The world Press Freedom Index revealed a shocking slide, with an unprecedented 31 countries deemed to be in a “very serious situation”, the lowest ranking in the report, up from 21 just two years ago.
Nordic countries have long topped the rankings released by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and Norway stayed in first place in the press freedom index for the seventh year running. Ireland was ranked second.
The overall climate for press freedom in Ireland was “positive, with journalists able to work freely and without interference,” the report stated, however, “concerns remain” about the future funding of the media, including public service broadcaster RTÉ, it said.
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Irish media outlets continued to face “considerable financial difficulty” in 2022, with regional titles in particular continuing to struggle.
Recent years had seen a “welcome transition to greater pluralism” in media ownership in Ireland, with Denis O’Brien’s sales of shares in Independent News & Media in 2019 and Communicorp in 2021 opening up the media landscape to “greater competition and diversity,” it said.
On occasion, Irish journalists reported that their safety has been threatened by criminal groups, but “no significant cases” were reported in 2022. There are “some concerns” about attacks on journalists on social media in Ireland.
The report also mentioned the “long-overdue review” of Ireland’s Defamation Act 2009, which was published in 2022. The review recommended providing clearer protection for public interest journalism, , which was “largely welcomed, though there were some concerns around the abolition of juries in defamation cases,” the report said.
NewsBrands Ireland has called for reforms of Ireland’s defamation laws to be implemented as quickly as possible. Chief executive Ann Marie Lenihan said the most important reform is the abolition of jury trials in defamation actions.
“It is important that this be introduced without delay,” she said. “A failure to speedily implement these changes would continue to undermine the work of the independent media in Ireland, which further erodes the proper functioning of democracy in this country.”
Internationally, increased aggressiveness from autocratic governments – and some that are considered democratic – coupled with “massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns” has caused the situation to go from bad to worse, according to the list.
“There is more red on the RSF map this year than ever before, as authoritarian leaders become increasingly bold in their attempts to silence the press,” the RSF secretary general, Christophe Deloire, said.“The international community needs to wake up to reality, and act together, decisively and fast, to reverse this dangerous trend.”
Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of the first world Press Freedom Day, which was created to remind governments of their duty to uphold freedom of expression. However, the environment for journalism today is considered “bad” in seven out of 10 countries, and satisfactory in only three out of 10, according to RSF. The UN says 85 per cent of people live in countries where media freedom has declined in the past five years.
The survey assesses the state of the media in 180 countries and territories, looking at the ability of journalists to publish news in the public interest without interference and without threats to their own safety.
It shows rapid technological advances are allowing governments and political actors to distort reality, and fake content is easier to publish than ever before.
“The difference is being blurred between true and false, real and artificial, facts and artifices, jeopardising the right to information,” the report said. “The unprecedented ability to tamper with content is being used to undermine those who embody quality journalism and weaken journalism itself.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) was “wreaking further havoc on the media world”, the report said, with AI tools “digesting content and regurgitating it in the form of syntheses that flout the principles of rigour and reliability”. This is not just written AI content but visual, too. High-definition images that appear to show real people can be generated in seconds.
At the same time, governments are increasingly fighting a propaganda war. Russia, which already plummeted in the rankings last year after the invasion of Ukraine, dropped another nine places, as state media slavishly parrots the Kremlin line while opposition outlets are driven into exile.
Last month, Moscow arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the first US journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.
Meanwhile, Tajikistan, India and Turkey dropped from being in a “problematic situation” into the lowest category on the RSF list.
India has been in particularly sharp decline, sinking 11 places to 161 after media takeovers by oligarchs close to Narendra Modi.
The Indian press used to be seen as fairly progressive, but things changed radically after the Hindu nationalist prime minister took over. This year, the BBC was raided by the country’s financial crimes agency in a move widely condemned as an act of intimidation after a BBC documentary was critical of Mr Modi.
In Turkey, the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdoganhad stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for May 14th, RSF said. Turkey jails more journalists than any other democracy.
Some of the 2023 index’s biggest falls were in Africa. Until recently a regional model, Senegal fell 31 places, mainly because of criminal charges brought against two journalists, Pape Alé Niang and Pape Ndiaye. Tunisia fell 27 places as a result of President Kais Saied’s growing authoritarianism.
The Middle East is the world’s most dangerous region for journalists. But the Americas no longer have any country coloured green, meaning “good”, on the press freedom map. The United States fell three places to 45th.
The Asia Pacific region is dragged down by regimes hostile to reporters, such as Myanmar (173rd) and Afghanistan (152nd).
The Netherlands returned to the top 10, rising 22 places, following the 2021 murder of the crime reporter Peter R de Vries. The United Kingdom was listed at 26.
The western world’s media landscape remains mixed, according to RSF and other press freedom groups, with political and financial pressures.
In the first quarter of this year, news media job cuts in the UK and North America ran at a rate of 1,000 jobs a month, a Press Gazette analysis found. – Guardian
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