Described as one of the countries in which press freedom has deteriorated, Brazil occupies the 110th position among 180 nations in the updated ranking of the NGO Reporters Without Borders released this Tuesday (3). The result represents a slight improvement over the previous year — when the country was in 111th —, but it is not recognized as real progress by the organization.
RSF says that distrust of the press, fueled by anti-media rhetoric spread by politicians such as President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), has gained ground over the past year. “Increasingly visible and virulent, public attacks weaken the profession and encourage abusive prosecutions, especially against [profissionais] women”, says part of the material.
Seven years ago, Brazil occupied the 99th position in the ranking, which evaluates 180 countries. Other Latin American nations such as Cuba (173rd), Nicaragua (160th), Venezuela (159th) and El Salvador (112th) are also mentioned as areas of concern by the organization in the balance sheet.
The document lists structural violence against journalists, the concentration of media outlets in a few private companies and disinformation campaigns as points of attention, highlighting the participation of the current government. “Relations with the press have deteriorated significantly since the coming to power of President Jair Bolsonaro, who regularly attacks journalists and the media in his speeches,” states the chapter on Brazil.
Altogether, the entity points out that 73% of the 180 countries evaluated each year experience very serious, difficult or problematic scenarios — Brazil is among the latter. The proportion is identical to the previous edition, but the number of nations where the situation is very serious (the highest category) has increased from 21 to 28.
Countries that live with authoritarian regimes or in which there is a weakening of democracy were highlighted by the RSF, which draws attention to the polarization in the international and domestic environments, stimulated by the increase in disinformation.
Vladimir Putin’s Russia, 155th on the list, is one such case. The organization points out that the invasion of the territory of neighboring Ukraine was orchestrated, in part, on the basis of a propaganda war promoted by the government, which gave new impetus to curtail the work of the professional press. “All independent private television channels are banned from the air, with the exception of cable entertainment channels,” the material reads.
“The creation of a media arsenal in some authoritarian regimes deprives citizens of their right to information and contributes to the increase in international tensions that can lead to the worst wars,” said RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire in an interview. collective.
China is another outstanding case. The dictatorship led by Xi Jinping “uses the legislative arsenal to confine its population and isolate it from the rest of the world, especially in Hong Kong,” the report says, referring to the semi-autonomous territory that Beijing has advanced in recent years. The country occupies the 175th position in the ranking.
The Hong Kong island occupies the 148th position, compared to 80th last year. “This is the biggest drop of the year, totally related to the constant attacks on press freedom and the slow disappearance of the rule of law,” Cedric Alviani, RSF’s East Asia director, told AFP news agency.
The Nicaragua of dictator Daniel Ortega, re-elected in a sham election last year, registered the most expressive drop in the Americas: 39 points – from 121st to 160th. In the neighborhood, RSF also signaled that El Salvador is in a worrying situation with what it described as an authoritarian turn by the government of Nayib Bukele.
Mexico remains the most violent place in the world for the press. The country is in the 127th position in the global ranking and, according to the RSF count, it has recorded four murders of press professionals for reasons related to the profession since the beginning of this year – the organization Article 19, which also monitors the matter, pointed to eight crimes of type in a report on the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Worldwide last year, according to the report, 25 journalists were killed and 480 are currently in prison — China (120), Myanmar (69) and Belarus (36) lead in arrests.
Only eight countries are classified as doing well in terms of press freedom. They are: Norway —the leader of the list—, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Costa Rica and Lithuania. The last in the ranking is the North Korean dictatorship.
The United States occupies the 42nd position, while Argentina is in the 29th and Colombia, in the
