Headlines
Press freedom in Albania was already in decline, before two consecutive crises — a deadly earthquake in November 2019 and now the COVID-19 pandemic — further eroded journalism rights in the country. Reporters Without Borders ranked Albania 84 out of 180 countries in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, down two places from the year before
At least 55 media workers in 23 countries have died since March 1 because of the pandemic, according to the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign
Since March 1, the PEC said it had recorded the deaths of 55 media workers across 23 countries from the virus, although it stressed that it remained unclear if all of them had become infected on the job
Somali journalists accuse the government of cracking down on press freedom, with beatings, detentions, and threats of prosecution. Mohamed Sheikh Nor takes a look at what it’s like to be a reporter in Somalia
Guiyang County People’s Court sentenced journalist Chen Jieren to 15 years’ imprisonment on April 30 after finding him guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” “extortion and blackmail,” “illegal business activity,” and “bribery.”
Ignace Sossou , investigative journalist for the information site Bénin Web TV, will appear before the Cotonou Court of Appeal tomorrow April 28, 2020. Convicted for “harassment by electronic means” in December 2019, he is detained in a prison in the Beninese capital for more than four months. Pursued for having relayed on social networks the words of a prosecutor held during a workshop on disinformation, he nevertheless committed no fault. In a video confronting the magistrate’s statements and the journalist’s tweets, RSF had managed to prove his total innocence and to show that he had taken verbatim the words of the prosecutor, whom he considered, as a journalist, to be ‘They were of public interest
Unhappy with its 177th out of 180 rankings in the World Press Freedom Index, China maintains that foreign journalists are “welcome”. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recalls that the regime is harassing press correspondents and has just expelled 13 of them
In India, the well-known news anchors serve informally as propaganda ministers. They want to combine religion with everything. They viewed the Palghar lynching as a conspiracy and held opposition leaders responsible.
Another novelty of 2020: these four countries, ruled by single communist parties, are joined in the “black zone” of the RSF Ranking by a fifth regime which has passed the lead in terms of absolute information control: Singapore. With its Orwellian law supposed to combat “false information”, the city-state loses seven places from one year to the next (158th)
On April 14, the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, was thus summoned by the Quai d’Orsay after having disseminated on the internet page of his mission in France and on the Twitter social network false information implicating the nursing staff and a coalition of French parliamentarians. Washington also had to demand an explanation on March 13 after two senior officials from the Chinese foreign ministry, Zhao Linjian and Hua Chunying , suggested that the virus was from the United States