Let’s start with the good news: New Zealand has risen three places in the World Press Freedom Index and has the highest ranking of any Commonwealth country. It now sits at 16th.
The latest index was released on World Press Freedom Day on Saturday.
Last year Canada was five places ahead of us. This year it is five places behind, pulled down particularly by coverage of indigenous rights protests which has seen journalists arrested. We continue to outrank the United Kingdom by four places. Our neighbour across the Tasman continues to lag well behind – weighed down by the concentrated ownership of its media. However, Australia has improved by 10 places and has risen from 39th to 29th.
The top of the index continues to be dominated by countries in Northern Europe: Norway, Estonia, Netherlands., Sweden, Finland, and Denmark again fill the first six places.
Last year, the United States had dropped ten places to 55th in the face of public distrust and official antagonism. Many may have been surprised to see it is now down only two more places to 57th. The reason is simple: The index reflects activity in the previous January to December year. The open assaults on media and challenges to the Constitution by the Trump Administration had yet to register. Expect next year’s ranking to plummet.
Conditions for journalism are poor in half of the world’s countries and, for the first time in the index’s 23-year history, the global state of press freedom is now classified as a “difficult situation” – only one place above the bottom.
The index measures five main indicators: Political, social, legal, economic, and security. Its authors, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), say economic pressures are proving a major – yet often underestimated – factor in seriously weakening the media. And here is where New Zealand’s good news ends. New Zealand is picked out as one of the countries adversely impacted by media shutdowns.
Reading the country-by-country analysis it appears New Zealand owes its rise in the ranks more to the deterioration of other nation’s media freedoms than improvements in our own position. Continue reading “Rise in press freedom ranking but ‘could do better’”