Press freedom declines in Europe, RSF

Reporters without Borders (RSF) launched its annual World Press Freedom Index on Wednesday. It’s one of RSF’s largest advocacy tools that the NGO puts out every year to rank 180 countries in their press freedom.

A woman holds a placard reading 'Journalism is not a crime' to protest the detention of German journalist Deniz Yucel in front of Turkish embassy in Berlin on February 28, 2017. John MacDougall/AFP

This year the top 10 rankings were all occupied by European countries, apart from Costa Rica and Jamaica, and at the bottom of the list were Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea.

However, RSF’s World Press Freedom map indicates that media freedom has deteriorated with surveillance and violations of the right to confidential sources contributing to the fall in ranking of many Western and European democracies.

Filip Warwick has this report.