Friday, February 1, 2013

5 big losers in press freedom: Mali and ... Japan?

Each year, the World Press Freedom Index ranks the world?s nations ? 179 of them ? on how easy they make the work of journalists, scoring them in categories like media independence, the physical safety of reporters, free speech laws, and transparency. The resulting list reads much like a primer for understanding global conflict: Safe and prosperous countries like Finland and Norway do best, while war-torn dictatorships like Iran, Eritrea, and Syria are among the world?s worst spots to be not only a citizen, but a journalist as well.

But while the index suggests that press freedom is frequently a casualty of war ? take for instance Mali, which plummeted 74 spots on the list during the past year ? it also indicates that those wounds are not always fatal. This year saw massive growth in press freedom in several countries with bloody recent histories, including Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. These countries can serve as a bellwether for Middle Eastern and North African states struggling to remake themselves in the wake of the 2011 uprisings in that region, says Delphine Halgand, Washington director for the French NGO Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Fronti?res, or RSF), which released the index for 2012 today.

?In these Arab Spring countries we?re still waiting on the promise of new freedoms,? Ms. Halgand says. ?This is a really sensitive time for the future of the press there.?

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Elsewhere in the world, however, shifts in journalistic freedom have happened more quietly. Malawi, for instance, marched upward 71 places in a single year on the back of government reform there, while Japan dipped 31 spots based on the government?s handling of press coverage of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor disaster.

Here are five of the notable winners and losers on this year?s list.

#32: The United States

After tumbling 27 places in the rankings between 2011 and 2012, the United States recovered significant ground this year, rising 15 slots to 32nd. Last year?s downgrade was the result of police crackdown on reporters covering the Occupy Wall Street movement, which led to the imprisonment and beating of more than two dozen journalists, according to RSF. This was not the first time the American position in the ranking took a sudden nosedive ? the US fell 20 places between 2004 and 2005 at the height of government-media tensions over the war on terror. ?Even the US media climate reflects [political upheaval],? Halgand notes.

But just as the US began to right itself this year, Canada dropped 10 spots to 20th as a result of press difficulties in covering the widespread student protests there. But neither the US nor its northern neighbor came close to the press freedom enjoyed in the Western Hemisphere?s highest ranked nation, tiny Jamaica, which clocked in at 13th.

#53: Japan

Japan had Asia?s sharpest decline in the index, sliding from 22nd to 53rd place in the world. Despite a robust media climate overall in the country, RSF sounded alarm bells over an informal ban placed on independent coverage of subjects related to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.

The organization reported that several freelance journalists who pushed back against the restrictions had been subject to ?censorship, police intimidation, and judicial harassment.? Japan?s media also suffered from a more general insularity, RSF reported, where elite press clubs made it difficult for non-members to gain access to crucial information and reporting opportunities.

#99: Mali

Last year was not kind to the Malian press corps. Early in the year, mutinying soldiers seized control of the capital, while in the country?s north, Tuareg separatists ? and later, Islamist rebel groups ? brought large swaths of territory under the rule of their own guns. Over the course of the year, news organizations in the north found themselves censored by rebel groups, several local and international journalists were assaulted in the capital, Bamako, and a large number of radio stations were forced off the air. Once ?the continent?s star performer in democracy and press freedom,? according to RSF, Mali plummeted 74 places on the Press Freedom Index in 2012 ? from 25th to 99th ? the single largest decline of any country in the world.

#151: Myanmar (Burma)

Although it remains in the dubious company of Iraq (#150), Russia (#148), and Mexico (#153), Myanmar is something of a success story for press freedom, says Halgand, of RSF. The country rose 18 spots this year and has made small but significant lurches toward a free media ? there are no longer any journalists in the country imprisoned for their work, for instance, and media outlets exiled by the former military dictatorship are slowly being allowed to return. Myanmar has also eliminated the policy of prior censorship, where media content was suppressed before its publication, and RSF researchers were able to return to the country in 2012 after several years of blacklisting, Halgand says.

?Burma should be highlighted because we are observing amazing improvement with no violence,? she adds. ?It shows us that democratization can happen without crisis.?

#176: Syria

The world?s deadliest country for journalists over the last year, Syria saw the killing of at least 17 professional journalists, 44 so-called citizen journalists ? amateurs responsible for the regular dissemination of media ?? and 4 media assistants in 2012. Prominent among them for many western observers were American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, who died in February during the siege of the city of Homs.

The country as a whole has spent years in a near complete media blackout ? it ranked 173rd on the list even before its civil war began, in 2010. But the current conflict has made the sources of media oppression more diffuse, putting journalists in danger of being targeted not only by the government but by opposition groups as well.

?Pro [President Bashar Al-]Assad propaganda, the spread of false information, the hacking of email and social networking accounts, phishing etc ? a veritable information and disinformation war is being waged in Syria,? RSF wrote.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-big-losers-press-freedom-mali-japan-171700670.html

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