Media freedom in decline; racism on the rise

According to the new report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), press freedom is declining worldwide. Last year, as per the RSF analysis of press freedom standards available in 180 countries, repression of media and journalists has increased in almost all regions. This alarming decline of press freedom is all the more worrisome with more than half of the world's population facing elections this year. The report points out that the regimes that are supposed to ensure freedom of the press are at the forefront of eliminating it. Authorities who are supposed to protect the media are not only abdicating that responsibility, but are themselves complicit in annihilating media. All in all, the RSF report blames Israel, some countries in the Euro-Arab region, Russia, the United States and China, and indicates that the situation is showing no signs of improvement. A week before RSF released its report on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, Germany's Civil Liberties Union for Europe also highlighted that press freedom in European countries is on the verge of collapse. Apart from some countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden, which are the top ranked countries in RSF's press freedom index, many countries that used to boast of media freedom have now adopted the style of repression, as can be read from these reports.

India, which was ranked 161 among the 180 countries earlier, has risen to 159 in the 2024 index. The RSF report specifically points out that the apparent improvement reflected in moving up by two notches does not mean that the situation in the country has improved. Some countries have made progress in the index in this manner, only because the situation has worsened in other countries that previously ranked above them, a case of us feeling better because others are worse off. India has not marked any improvement in any one of the five indicators – political environment, legal protection, economic dependency, socio-cultural situation and safety of journalists – and some have even worsened. India still fares worse than countries like Turkey, Sri Lanka and Pakistan (although Pakistan has dropped two places). In addition to extreme right-wing threats against journalists, cyber attacks, and the buying up of media entities by the Ambani-Adanis, totalitarian laws by the state have also badly affected India. The Telecommunications Act (2023), the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Act (2023) and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023) are the new media-gagging laws. Laws have been introduced that give the government extraordinary powers to shut down the media, censor news and silence critics. Since Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, media in India have been experiencing an 'unofficial state of emergency'. The RSF says India, which Modi has repeatedly claimed as the 'mother of democracies', still does not deserve the title of a democracy. It points out that there is no freedom for women reporters in Afghanistan.

The place which suffered the biggest fall in freedom in Palestine. Israel targets media and journalists. More than 100 Palestinian reporters have been killed since last October. RSF uses a measure of how much media freedom the authorities, society and circumstances permit. At the same time, the question whether the media are exercising available freedom responsibly by the media is relevant – especially in the context of the Gaza genocide. When technologies including artificial intelligence facilitate fake news, one cannot lose sight of how dangerous the racism and extremism that has gripped the Western 'independent' media is. Several instances have already been revealed of 'independent' media such as New York Times, BBC, Washington Post and CNN spreading fake news to prepare the ground for genocide. There is also a relevant criticism that such media did not give space to Palestinian voices and what they did solely relying on reporters 'embedded' with the Israeli forces, does not constitute media activity, but mere propaganda. Together with the fact that governments do not ensure media freedom is disturbing, there is also the equally worrying phenomenon that even the available freedom is misused by the mainstream Western media. Both are dangerous.