Peace Brigades International

World Press Freedom Day

Gezien het vandaag de internationale ‘World Press Freedom Day’ is, hebben wij een klein overzicht gemaakt van de status quo van de landen waar PBI bescherming en steun biedt aan mensenrechtenverdedigers. Ter vergelijking, Nederland staat op plaats 3 van de 180 landen en is ten opzichte van vorig jaar twee plekken omhoog geschoven. 

KENIA 96 in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index. Ranking -1
Kenya has seen a slow erosion of media freedom in recent years. The political situation and security concerns have been used since 2016 as grounds for restricting the freedom to inform. During election campaigns, the media are routinely subjected to physical attacks by the security forces and the public, as well as to threats and intimidation by politicians. Journalists can pay dearly for covering opposition events or for portraying President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party and its flaws in a negative light. Four commercial TV channels were shut down at the start of 2018 for defying the president’s ban on live coverage of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s mock inauguration as president.

NEPAL 106 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking -6
Covering demonstrations continues to be dangerous for Nepalese journalists. Many reporters were the targets of intimidation or violence during clashes between protesters and police in the course of several months of demonstrations in the southern Terai lowlands, which fuelled political instability as well as physical threats to journalists and media.

GUATEMALA 116 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking +2
The country continues to suffer from organized crime and impunity, which makes honest journalism a difficult task. Exposing corruption and embezzlement involving politicians and government officials can lead to threats and physical violence. Journalists are often murdered, and as a result Guatemala continues to be one of the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for the media.

INDONESIË 124 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking 0
President Joko Widodo has not kept his campaign promises. His presidency continues to be marked by serious media freedom violations, including drastically restricting media access to the Papua and West Papua provinces (the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea), where violence against local journalists continues to grow. Foreign journalists and local fixers are liable to be arrested and prosecuted if they try to document the Indonesian military’s abuses there.

COLOMBIA 130 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking -1
The historic peace accords between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been slow to take effect and the press freedom situation is still a source of concern. Colombia continues to be one of the western hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for the media, and its journalists continue to be permanently threatened by “bacrims,” gangs of former paramilitaries now involved in drug trafficking. 

HONDURAS 141 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking -1
The situation of the Honduran media has worsened steadily for the past decade, and especially since the 2009 coup. Steeped in corruption and the violence of organized crime groups, Honduras has one of the hemisphere’s highest rates of impunity. Journalists with opposition media and community media are often physically attacked, threatened or forced to flee abroad.

MEXICO 147 in the World Press Freedom Index. Ranking 0
Land of the drug cartels, Mexico continues to be one the western hemisphere’s deadliest countries for the media. When journalists cover subjects linked to organized crime or political corruption (especially at the local level), they are the targets of intimidation and physical violence and are often executed in cold blood.

Informatie van Reporters without Borders.
Zie:
www.rsf.org