| Issue 26 Vol II, October 31, 2006 | Archive |
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21st Century Media: State and Monopolies Stifle India’s ranking dropped to 105 as compared to 80 in 2002, as per the fifth Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006.A credible media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders found after a survey of 168 countries through scores of journalists, human right activists and civil liberty supporters.
It is also sad that a democratic country where the media and entertainment industry is growing fast (estimated at Rs 800 billion by 2010) with the entry of the corporate giants like the Tatas and Ambanis, should lag where the freedom of the press is concerned. The report also reveals another trend wherein new countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies while the most repressive countries are still the same ones. "Each year new countries in less-developed parts of the world move up the Index to positions above some European countries or the United States. This is good news and shows once again that, even though very poor, countries can be very observant of freedom of _expression. Meanwhile the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming,” Reporters Without Borders said. The much talked about democracy, the United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the President used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism. For instance freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year. “Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. According to the survey the three worst violators of free _expression - North Korea, bottom of the Index at 168th place, Turkmenistan (167th) and Eritrea (166th) - have clamped down further. Northern European countries once again come top of the Index, with no recorded censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals in Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands, which all share first place. While things are much the same in Sri Lanka, which ranked 51st in 2002, when there was peace, but has now sunk to 141st thanks to the fight between government and rebel forces which has resumed in earnest. Dozens of Tamil journalists have been physically attacked after being accused by one side or the other of being biased against them. In contrast things should get better for Nepal with the “democratic revolution” and the revolt against the monarchy in April this year which led immediately to more basic freedoms. Press freedom in Nepal (159th) has shifted according to the state of the fighting that plagued the country for several years and should gain a lot of ground in next year’s Index. Changes of rulers can sometimes be good for press freedom. |
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Overall, the
South Asian picture is dismal, and the trends are bad too with seven Asian
countries in the bottom 20 of the Index and none in the top 20. But it is
all the more disappointing in the case of India , second most populated
country that is supposed to have a free press.