In 2022, as every year, the world ranking of press freedom established by Reporters without Borders (RSF) sends shivers down the spine.
International events such as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia have considerably deteriorated the situation of journalism in Russia (155th place) which was already not good.
The military coup in Mali, the country where French reporter Olivier Dubois was kidnapped, also weighed on the country's already very low rating (111 th place).
The coup in Burma (176th place) and the fall of Afghanistan (156th place) into the hands of the Taliban, dealt a fatal blow to the press in these countries.
In Asia, RSF is helplessly watching the slow and continuous deterioration of press freedom in Hong Kong.
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But the very bad situation of these distant countries, “
should not make us forget the dangers which weigh on freedom of expression in our democratic countries”
underlines Christophe Deloire, president of RSF.
"The polarization of the media, initiated for economic reasons in the race for audiences, has had effects on the polarization of society and ultimately that of politics,"
he adds.
In April 2022, the non-governmental organization filed a QPC (priority question of constitutionality) accusing Arcom of its "refusal" to act against the failures of CNEWS, the news channel of the Canal+ group, to fulfill its legal obligations.
RSF believes that the revision of the 1986 law regulating the audiovisual media must be updated to better preserve the constitutional principle of pluralism of information.
Asymmetry of information spaces
Another danger put forward, the "asymmetry" between the information spaces of open democratic countries and that of totalitarian countries, totally closed.
Consequences, countries like Russia or China take advantage of the rules of democratic countries to impose their media in our information spaces without the reciprocal being possible.
After the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, European countries were slow to stop the broadcasting of Kremlin-subjugated media Russia Today and Sputnik.
“At RSF we have never considered that RT and Sputnik were media worthy of the name.
emphasizes Christophe Deloire.