Reporters Without Borders: Arab states blacklisted

Reporters Without Borders has revealed that press freedom is currently facing greater risks than ever before, stressing that Arab states are at the bottom of their world press freedom index.

The international body, which issues an annual freedom index relating to freedom of the press, said that as the war in Syria continues and daily killing of civilians continue, journalists are not safe from this violence.

Journalists, the organisation said, are subject to this kind of violence, putting Syria at the bottom of the index.

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North Korea is the country which targets press freedom the most among all countries of the world, while Norway features at the top of the index regarding respecting press freedom.

The index used an interactive map and marked Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria as black on the world map, while the other Arab state were marked red.

The organisation said that 11 journalists had been killed since the start of 2017, two of them in Iraq, one in Syria, three in Mexico, one in Russia, two bloggers in Syria and a journalist in Afghanistan.

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Regarding journalists in prisons, the organisation said that 193 have been arrested since the start of this year; 23 in Egypt, seven in Syria, 15 in Iran and eight in Bahrain.

166 bloggers had been arrested since the start of the year, including 17 in Syria and 82 in China.

Reporters Without Borders said that Egypt was ranked 161st on the index, noting it was added to the blacklist that included the countries which are the most dangerous on journalists.

The organisation expressed its concerns about the “big change” in the state of press freedom, especially in well-known democratic countries.

“Egypt is now one of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists. Some spend years in detention without being charged or tried,” the organisation said.

It also stated that the election of the US President Donald Trump undermined press freedoms.

“He [Trump] has declared the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, while attempting to block White House access to multiple media outlets in retaliation for critical reporting,” Reporters Without Borders said.

Meanwhile, regarding the UK, the organisation said: “A heavy-handed approach towards the press – often in the name of national security – has resulted in the UK slipping down the World Press Freedom Index. Parliament adopted the most extreme surveillance legislation in UK history, the Investigatory Powers Act.”