Reporters Without Borders: Iran Ranked 164th in Global Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders in its latest report on media freedom worldwide has warned of “increasing hate campaigns” against journalists, encouragement to confront them, and the imposition of information by authoritarian regimes.
Iran in the 2018 list ranks 164th out of 180 countries.
Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands top the global media freedom list. North Korea is the worst country in terms of media freedom, followed by Eritrea and Turkmenistan.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Iran has made no particular progress in the current year compared to last year and continues to “stagnate in the lower ranks.”
The media watchdog has recalled that the Islamic Republic of Iran has never managed to leave the bottom of the table and has always been “among the worst neighbors.” Iran was among the five bottom countries in 2011 and was ranked even lower a year before that.
Although the 164th ranking compared to last year when Iran was ranked 165th might indicate an improvement in press and media freedom, Reporters Without Borders has noted that this “improvement” of one rank is due to worsening conditions in other countries.
According to the organization, Iran remains one of the five largest prisons in the world for journalists and citizen journalists, and since December 2017, “more than twenty journalists and fifty citizen journalists” have been detained in the country.
Reporters Without Borders has criticized the “Bill on Media System Organization” of the Islamic Republic, saying that this bill “beyond its legal deficiencies and ineffectiveness for Iranian society, wants to turn journalists into government employees.”
The organization’s reference is to the proposed bill by the Islamic Republic government last year that ties journalism to “obtaining a journalism license.” In case of a “press crime,” if the article belongs to someone without a journalism license, they will be tried in public court without a jury. And this is while the Media System Organization is under the complete control of the Iranian government and journalists have no independence in it.
Reporters Without Borders says that the “suppression” of press freedom is not limited to within the country, and “global media outlets and especially Persian-language media outside the country have also become victims of suppression, threats, and censorship” by the Iranian government.
Dictators, War, and “Information Blackholes”
Reporters Without Borders has warned about the imposition of journalism preferred by authoritarian regimes, while noting that dictators and war turn countries into “information blackholes.”
In the organization’s rankings, Syria is ranked 177th, another war-torn Middle Eastern country, Yemen is ranked 167th, and Iraq is ranked 160th. The situation in other Middle Eastern countries is no better. Saudi Arabia is five places lower than Iran and ranked 169th, and the United Arab Emirates is ranked 128th.
Reporters Without Borders says that on the 2018 media freedom map, never have so many countries been in the black category, meaning “very dire,” and “a large number of Middle Eastern countries fall into this category.”
The media watchdog says that press freedom conditions in the United States “have deteriorated further” and in Canada, another North American country, “conditions have continued to improve.” The situation in Africa has improved somewhat, but the indicator for Eastern Europe and South Asia has deteriorated toward the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the organization, conditions in the Middle East and North Africa region “become more dire year after year.”
Reporters Without Borders publishes its rankings on media freedom once a year since 2002. According to the organization, patterns such as self-censorship and harassment and suppression of press freedom, infrastructure and legal frameworks, pluralism and media independence serve as criteria in publishing its annual report.
Source: Radio Farda
