Malta has climbed two places in the global ranking of press freedom, largely due to other countries performing worse than last year as journalism faces increasing restrictions around the world.
Malta ranked 46 out of 180 countries, compared to a ranking of 48 last year, in the World Press Freedom Index. Malta’s ranking was affected by new restrictions on press freedom in other countries such as Poland, which dropped to 47th place after the ultra-conservative government seized control of the public media.
Most of the movement in the World Press Freedom Index published on Wednesday by Reporters Without Borders is indicative of a climate of fear and tension combined with increasing control over newsrooms by governments and private-sector interests.
Journalism worthy of the name must be defended against the increase in propaganda
“It is unfortunately clear that many of the world’s leaders are developing a form of paranoia about legitimate journalism,” according to the organisation’s secretary-general, Christophe Deloire.
Seen as a benchmark throughout the world, the index ranks 180 countries according to the freedom allowed to journalists. It also includes indicators of the level of media freedom violations in each region. These show that Europe (with 19.8 points) still has the freest media, followed distantly by Africa (36.9), which, for the first time, overtook the Americas (37.1), a region where violence against journalists is on the rise, according to the report.
North Africa and the Middle East (50.8) is still the region where journalists are most subjected to constraints of every kind.
Three north European countries head the rankings. They are Finland (ranked first, the position it has held since 2010), followed by the Netherlands and Norway.
“The climate of fear results in a growing aversion to debate and pluralism, a clampdown on the media by ever more authoritarian and oppressive governments and reporting in the privately-owned media that is increasingly shaped by personal interests. Journalism worthy of the name must be defended against the increase in propaganda and media content that is made to order or sponsored by vested interests,” Mr Deloire said.
The index is based on an evaluation of media freedom that measures pluralism, media independence, the quality of the legal framework and the safety of journalists.