Media

Hostility toward journalists often expressed by political leaders is putting media at risk globally, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual report published on April 18.

Hatred of the media spread by politicians had "incited increasingly serious and frequent acts of violence that have fueled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists," it said in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

A "hostile climate that goes beyond [President] Donald Trump's comments" meant the United States had fallen three places to number 48 in the index, according to RSF.

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul also "sent a chilling message to journalists well beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia," down three to 172, the report said.

In other countries, threats, insults and attacks had become "occupational hazards," RSF said, noting that in India, ranked 140, six journalists were murdered last year.

RSF said the number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media.

Norway topped the index for the third year running. At the other end, Turkmenistan replaced North Korea in the bottom spot at 180.

Russia, ranked 149, continues to persecute independent media outlets, the RSF report said.

Uzbekistan’s rating rose five spots to 160, after freeing all the journalists who were imprisoned under Islam Karimov, an autocrat who ruled for a quarter-century until his death in 2016.

Armenia's ranking was up 19 spots to 61. This, RSF said, was a result of the “velvet revolution,” which has loosened the government’s grip on state-owned broadcasting.

Iran, on the other hand, was down six places to 170. RSF noted Iran is “one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.”

Afghanistan, ranked 121, and Pakistan, ranked 142, were noted in the RSF report for the “extremely high” number of murdered journalists.

With reporting by dpa

The global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned what it says are “trumped-up charges of online terrorism and defaming respected institutions” against a prominent investigative journalist in Pakistan.

In an April 16 statement, RSF said that the case against Shahzeb Jillani has been designed to “intimidate and silence” Pakistan’s journalists. He is due to appear in court in the southern city of Karachi on April 17.

“We urge the court to dismiss these charges against Shahzeb Jillani because, from the legal viewpoint, the case is completely inadmissible,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

Jillani, an investigative reporter, has worked for the BBC and Deutsche Welle. He now works for the Urdu-language TV channel Dunya News. He has already obtained an interim bail from the High Court in the southern province of Sindh to evade arrest by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The FIA recently registered a case against Jillani, who is accused of violating four articles in the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and two criminal code provisions, RSF said. “The charges include ‘defamatory remarks against the respected institutions of Pakistan’ and ‘cyber-terrorism,’” the statement added.

According to RSF, the case against Jillani is based on an April 6 complaint filed by a lawyer known for filing suits in the Supreme Court. In the complaint, the lawyer claimed he was offended by Jillani’s “audacious” remarks during a TV show broadcast on December 8, 2017.

Bastard said the case amounts to another instance of Pakistani authorities manipulating the laws in order to silence a journalist. “It is shocking to see how, little by little, case by case, the Pakistani security agencies are tightening their vice in order to intimidate the entire media profession into censoring themselves,” he said.

Pakistan is ranked 139th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index. In its annual report issued on April 15, Pakistan’s leading rights watchdog, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said it had documented the “unprecedented level” to which the freedom of expression and press freedom have shrunk in the country.