World Press Freedom Day: We have a right to know
As Albert Camus put it: A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.
THE Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”
Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF’s) Worldwide Press Freedom Index reflects the degree of freedom journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country and the efforts made by each state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.
Criteria considered range from legislation to violence against journalists. While the political system is not considered, it is clear that democracies better protect the freedom to circulate accurate information.
South Africa ranks 52nd out of 179 countries in the latest index. Doubts about the effects, in practical terms, of the Protection of State Information Bill are no doubt the main reason for the ten-place drop from the previous year’s rating.
Within Africa, South Africa comes in sixth position, after Namibia (19th), Ghana (30th), Botswana (40th), Niger (43rd) and Burkina Faso (46th). Malawi, up by 71 places to 75th, registered the biggest leap in the index, while Ivory Coast jumped 63 places to 96th.
Worldwide, Finland is still the best place to be a journalist, having taken top spot for the past three years, followed by the Netherlands and Norway. But you don’t want to go to Turkmenistan (177th), North Korea (178th) or Eritrea (179th) to look for a scoop.
The high number of journalists killed in the course of their work made 2012 the deadliest year on record and, not surprisingly, the deadliest country for journalists was Syria.
