World Press Freedom Index: India falls to 138 spot, third worst among SAARC nations

The report suggests a scary picture especially in democratic countries where political leaders are openly threatening journalists, even incarcerating them if they refuse to offer their loyalty.

However, Nordic countries outperformed themselves on the index with Norway ranking first for the second consecutive year, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.

Authoritarian regimes like Turkey and Egypt were ranked at 157 and 161 respectively as scribes in the countries are "routinely accused of terrorism and arbitrarily imprisoned for non-conformity".

The US fell two places to 45 after the inception of the Trump regime where the president is seen brazenly bashing the media, even referring to reporters as “enemies of the people”, a term ironically used by Joseph Stalin once.

Philippines which declined by six ranks and took the 133rd spot has seen President Rodrigo Duterte, not only humiliate media persons, but also threaten them saying that they “are not exempted from assassination.”

North Korea was ranked at the bottom of the list.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia was at 148, using media outlets such as RT and Sputnik to further the establishment’s propaganda; whereas Xi Jinping’s China was at 176 with its extremely curtailed model of news.

The Index also highlights countries such as Iraq, which it says has become a media black hole because of war.

The report has attributed its findings to worsening regional indicators such as violence, impunity, conflict between the ruling establishment and private media, blasphemy laws, etc.

The Index also shows heightened verbal violence used against journalists by political leaders in European countries. President Milos Zeman of Czech Republic, which is down 11 at 34, turned up at press conference with a fake Kalashnikov inscribed with the words “for journalists.” In Slovakia, which is down 10 at 27, Prime Minister Robert Fico called journalists “filthy anti-Slovak prostitutes” and “idiotic hyenas.” This paints a scary picture in Europe which is known to be the region which respects Press Freedom the most.

On the matter of increasing animosity against media persons, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Political leaders who fuel loathing for reporters bear heavy responsibility because they undermine the concept of public debate based on facts instead of propaganda. To dispute the legitimacy of journalism today is to play with extremely dangerous political fire.”