COVID-19, the latest threat to a deteriorated press freedom

COVID-19 has added to the threats to press freedom worldwide, which has deteriorated under pressure from totalitarian governments that are taking advantage of the pandemic to attack the work of journalists, according to the annual report of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The organization said this week that the coronavirus has appeared at the start of "a decisive decade" for press freedom, with challenges and uncertainties in the geopolitical, technological, democratic, economic and confidence levels. "We are entering a decisive decade for journalism because of the simultaneous crises affecting the future of the press," said the NGO's secretary-general, French journalist Christophe Deloire, who considered that the current pandemic was aggravating the situation.

The traditional world press freedom ranking published by RSF is again dominated by the Nordic countries of Europe and closed by North Korea, which replaces Turkmenistan, both in the back of the so-called "black zone", which includes, among others, China, Eritrea, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea and Egypt.

Although this overall rate showed a slight improvement compared to 2019, at 0.9%, RSF pointed out that it occurs in a context of increasing degradation in recent years, in which it has fallen by 13% compared to 2013, the year it began to be elaborated.

The number of countries where the situation is "good" remained stable at 8% of the total, but the number of countries where journalists work in a "black zone" increased by two points to 18%, indicating that the situation is "critical".

The deterioration was evident in those countries in the "black zone" where COVID-19 has hit hardest, such as China and Iran, which according to RSF took advantage of the emergency situation to establish "massive censorship devices". Deloire said the pandemic had been "a multiplying factor" in the deterioration of press freedom in many countries.

Another example is Hungary, whose Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, "pushed through a law on the coronavirus that punishes the dissemination of false news with up to five years in prison, a completely excessive penalty".
Many authoritarian governments have taken advantage of a crisis that disrupts political life and generates consternation in the population to "impose measures that would be impossible in normal times," said the RSF chief.

The ranking also highlights that the deterioration continues in some democracies, such as the United States and Brazil, where their presidents don't hesitate to put journalists on the target of their darts, which has led to these two countries becoming "anti-model" countries.

Arbitrary arrests have increased in Africa and harassment of investigative journalists and protection of sources has been threatened in Asia, the region where press freedom has been most severely restricted in the past year. The Middle East and North Africa remain the most difficult areas for journalists to work in.

RSF reported that Saudi Arabia and Egypt remain the world's largest prisons for journalists in a scenario where the situation is worsening in Russia, where China is trying to force "a new world information order" and where India imposed the biggest digital blackout in history on Kashmir.

In Latin America, only Costa Rica and Uruguay escaped the general decline in a year marked by popular uprisings, which made the work of journalists difficult, while Spain maintained 29th place despite attacks by extreme right-wing groups and independents in Catalonia.

RSF added that the press also faces a global lack of regulation which, at the technological level, mixes propaganda, publicity, rumors and journalistic information, a situation which is evident in the current health crisis, where "rumors and fake news spread as fast as the virus".

This scenario has further reduced public confidence in journalists, who have also seen their economic situation deteriorate, with more precarious employment, a growing concentration of media in the hands of large corporations and an increase of polarization.