Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00At the top is Norway, at the bottom is Eritrea.
00:03Reporters Without Borders releasing its annual World Press Freedom Index,
00:07indicating a sharp drop in press freedom around the globe.
00:10Take a look.
00:12Media rights group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, is sounding alarm bells.
00:18Their annual report, released Friday, indicates a sharp drop in press freedom around the world,
00:23with the group's main index at its lowest ever score.
00:26Conditions for journalism globally are now categorized by the group as difficult.
00:32It's unfortunately a situation that we monitor on a yearly basis,
00:37and what we see is that 60% of the countries we monitor have a decline of press freedom.
00:44RSF reports that this decline is largely driven by worsening economic conditions for journalism,
00:49including in the United States, where funding for local media is drying up
00:53and creating vast news deserts across the country.
00:56RSF leadership is advocating for public policies that would provide more financial support to journalists.
01:04When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press,
01:10those who champion disinformation and propaganda.
01:13The media economy must urgently be restored to a state that is conducive to journalism
01:18and ensures the production of reliable information.
01:22RSF expressed concern about consequences of authoritarian shifts in government for journalism,
01:28singling out Donald Trump's funding cuts for Radio Free Europe and Voice of America,
01:33which it calls a victory for dictators around the world.
01:37Trump similarly announced funding cuts to NPR and PBS on Friday.
01:41The group also condemned the dire situation of journalists reporting from Gaza.
01:46RSF reports that nearly 200 journalists have been killed while covering the bombing of the Gaza Strip
01:51and says multiple newsrooms have been destroyed by the Israeli army.
01:55Joining us on the set is Blanche Marais, a data journalist,
02:00and one of the authors working on that report from Reporters Without Borders.
02:03Letit Blanche, thank you for coming in.
02:06I was just, first of all, wondering if you can give us a statement generally about the global situation,
02:11because it sounds very stark, very worrying.
02:14Yes, sure.
02:15This year, the World Press Freedom Index showed that the situation is really decreasing
02:21and a double red line has been crossed.
02:24First, the global score is now under 55 points out of 100,
02:30so it means that the mean of all countries in the world is under a difficult situation.
02:39If we look at the map, we see that half of the country are in orange or red,
02:46and a dark orange or red.
02:48And this is even worse if we look at the economic indicator,
02:52because on the economic indicator, it's three quarters of the world which is under this situation.
02:58So that's why we decided to show how difficult it is to face economic threats against the media in the world.
03:09A small patch of green on that map where the situation is defined as good.
03:14Real briefly, what are those countries doing right that so much of the rest of the world is getting wrong?
03:20Yeah, nowadays, only 1%, less than 1% of the population is now in a green area,
03:27and it's the country where we try to show how important it is to have different pluralism,
03:36different media and different ideas,
03:38but also not to block or suspend fundings if a media has a different point of view.
03:49Because if we have a large scale of information, it will allow to have more information and more freedom of speech.
03:58You're a data journalist.
03:59How is this report compiled?
04:02How do you compile the information for this report?
04:04Yes, sure.
04:05This report is taking a long time to create it.
04:09In fact, we send some surveys to experts in 180 countries,
04:14so that's a lot of countries,
04:16and we just send it to journalists, but also lawyers, media workers,
04:21and we try to ask them as many questions about the situation.
04:27For example, is press freedom in your constitution,
04:30or are there any threats against journalism,
04:35like physical, but also there are 130 questions.
04:39And thanks to these replies, we are able to make the global index.
04:47And the global index is divided in five different categories
04:50because we consider that press freedom situation is the ability of being a journalist
04:57without any political, economic, legal, social, or safety threats.
05:03And that's why we have these five indicators.
05:06Now, one thing that struck me, the U.S. falling to its lowest position ever,
05:10I believe it's 57th, that's only too worse than last year, though.
05:14Yes, sure.
05:15That's a really good point because, in fact,
05:17the situation in the U.S. is getting worse since a long time ago.
05:21And 10 years ago, it was 10 points a year.
05:25So the U.S. lost 10 points in 10 years.
05:29It's important to say that the economic fragility of the media and news media,
05:37local news media outlets in the U.S. is not a new thing.
05:41For example, since 2005, there have been two local news outlets closing each week.
05:49That's our estimation.
05:50So now what is very different this year is that the election of Donald Trump
05:57is just showing that the administration is not going to try to help these media
06:03which are in difficulties, but they are going to fret and stop the information.
06:12And then complicating all of this is big tech.
06:15What can you tell us about that?
06:16Yes, it's always a good thing to tell because, in fact,
06:22the structure of the information has changed the last year.
06:26But now we haven't seen a change in the economic structure of the media.
06:32In fact, all the tech platforms are having some advertisement fundings,
06:43but they don't share it to the independent journalists
06:48which are publishing only on their outlets, for example.
06:51And that's not only in the U.S.
06:53It's also the case in some very close country in Eastern Europe
06:57where bloggers are trying to share some specific independent information
07:02and they don't receive anything for their work, in fact.
07:06Last year, the deadliest year on record for journalists,
07:10much of them dying in the war in Gaza and around it with Lebanon.
07:15What has your report found in terms of declines in countries like Israel in terms of press freedom?
07:21It was the deadliest year for journalists in conflict zones.
07:27Yes, but the war in Gaza is really a tragedy
07:33because it's a bit different from the previous really dangerous war
07:38which were Iraq or Syria or Vietnam before.
07:42The thing is that journalists from the outside can't come to show what is really happening.
07:48So we often hear this mixture between journalists and terrorists
07:53saying that journalists in Gaza are just terrorists.
07:57But in fact, they are not at all.
07:59They are just risking their life to share information.
08:02And that's the reality on the field.
08:04So they go under a tent and they try to share the news to the international news and world.
08:13And what is really trying to do Israel is not only to close the frontier
08:21and to say, no, we don't want any foreign journalists inside,
08:26but also to kill the journalism from the inside.
08:30All right, Blanche.
08:30Thank you so much for coming in, Blanche Maras, from Reporters Without Borders.