Journalism is Becoming Increasingly Difficult, and Dangerous

The UNESCO freedom of expression report recorded that the killing of journalists rose from 55 in 2021 to 86 in 2022. In the same year, the World Press Freedom Index have given a ‘very serious’ rating for journalism to more countries than ever before. This worrying trend indicates that more governments around the world are suppressing the freedom of the press to report the truth about important stories.

The World Press Freedom Index is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) and compares the levels of press freedom experienced by media and journalists in 180 countries. The rankings are scored on a scale from zero to 100 and are based on how many abuses were committed against journalists and media outlets in each country over the course of a year from January to December. The index also uses information from surveys completed by journalists, academics, researchers and human rights specialists. Countries scoring below 40 were given the ranking of ‘very serious’. The 2022 edition gave 28 countries ‘very serious’ ratings, which is the highest number since the index was first created 20 years ago.

RWB defines press freedom as the ability of journalists to do their jobs without political, legal, economic or social or cultural constraints. At the more extreme end of the scale, the ranking assess levels of threat of physical harm, psychological or emotional distress, or the threat of not being able to perform one’s professional duties without risk of losing one’s job or having professional premises or equipment destroyed or confiscated.

At the very bottom of the 2022 list was North Korea, which was given a score of 13.92. Next was Eritrea at 19.62, followed by Iran, Turkmenistan and Myanmar, where RWB says press freedom has been set back by 10 years since the military coup in 2021. China, which tightly controls the information its citizens receive, was sixth from bottom with a score of 25.17. Other countries scoring below 40 included Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Venezuela, Russia and Belarus. Israel, where US journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in 2022, was ranked 84 on the list with a score of 59.62.

Only eight countries ranked as ‘good’ on the index, with Norway being at the top of the list with a score of 92.65. Thirteen of the top 20 countries, which didn’t include the UK or the USA, were in Europe. The UK (24) and the USA (42) were ranked below countries such as Ireland (6), Portugal (7), and Jamaica (12).

Despite European countries scoring well, RWB noted that press freedom was still a concern. For example, in countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, journalists had been insulted, physically attacked and had their jobs threatened for their reporting on issues such as the coronavirus pandemic.