The women journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini in detention last September, days after her arrest by Iran’s morality police for failing properly to cover her hair. And Narges Mohammadi, a journalist and human rights campaigner, is currently serving a 16-year sentence in Evin prison in Tehran, from where she continues doggedly to report.
On the 30th World Press Freedom Day yesterday, these three brave women were rightly honoured with the UN’s press freedom award. Meanwhile, a report from Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has recorded a serious decline to its lowest level yet in its global index of media freedom. According to the UN, 86 journalists were killed last year for their work, while 85 per cent of people now live in countries where media freedom has declined in the past five years.
The survey assesses the state of the media globally, reporting that journalists are under unprecedented attack from governments. One of the sharpest falls in the index placings was in Russia – where reporter Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal remains detained by the authorities – which is down nine places in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
Also falling down the rankings are India, particularly for journalists critical of prime minister Narendra Modi, and Turkey, which stepped up persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections this month.
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The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists last week issued a report warning against complacency on media freedom in the EU, specifically because of rising populism and illiberal governments like those in Hungary and Poland.
Ireland was ranked second in the world, up from sixth in 2021, in a Nordic cluster at the top of the RSF index. Its changed position probably reflects the new index methodology, but long-promised reform of the defamation law could help secure the country’s standing.