Pakistan ranked 159 out of 180 countries in press freedom: report

Pakistan continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, a fact corroborated by the annual report of press freedom by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in which Pakistan has been ranked 159 out of 180 countries.

The same group placed Pakistan at 158 last year in its annual report.

Uncertain security conditions, risk of terrorism related activities and overwhelming political influence have been all cited as the reasons behind Pakistani media’s lack of freedom.

However, Pakistani media isn’t the lone sufferer in worsening security circumstances.

Media freedom worldwide suffered a “drastic decline” last year in part because of extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, Without Borders said in its annual evaluation released Thursday.

“There has been an overall deterioration linked to very different factors, with information wars, and action by non-state groups acting like news despots,” the head of the Paris-based group, Christophe Deloire, told AFP.

The Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index stated that there were 3,719 violations of freedom of information in 180 countries in 2014 — eight per cent more than a year earlier.

All parties in conflicts raging in the Middle East and Ukraine were waging “a fearsome information war” where media personnel were directly targeted to be killed, captured or pressured to relay propaganda, it said.

The Islamic State group active in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and Cameroon, and criminal organisations in Italy and Latin America all used “fear and reprisals to silence journalists and bloggers who dare to investigate or refuse to act as their mouthpieces,” said the watchdog, known by its French initials RSF.

North Africa and the Middle East contained notable “black holes” in which “entire regions are controlled by non-state groups in which independent information simply does not exist,” the group said.

“The criminalisation of blasphemy endangers freedom of information in around half of the world’s countries,” the report said, noting that religious extremists sometimes also go after journalists or bloggers they believe do not sufficiently respect their religion.

RSF’s ranking put Iran, China, Syria and North Korea among the countries with the very worst levels of press freedom out of the 180 evaluated.