BY NDUMBE BELL JOSEPH GASTON IN DOUALA
The NGO Reporters Without Borders has recently published the results of its World Press freedom rankings after research findings in 180 countries out of which 10 African countries have been earmarked as those trying to lead the chart of press freedom in the continent.
Reporters Without Borders (also in French RSF) reports that the contributions made by their experts have under-scored the infiltration or the “involvement of political actors” in “massive disinformation or propanganda campaigns”, which is a complete deviation of the professional ethics.
In other findings the NGO says the deviation from democratic processes to “increasingly authoritarian and intolerance of criticism from the press” has aroused opposition to “the sharp” deterioration in the security conditions of journalists.
According to RWB, the rise of juntas and authoritarian leadership in Africa led to the expulsion and imprisonment of journalists and when these decision are taken, it affects the positions of the countries in the segment of press freedom rankings.
Such is the case of a pro-Russian narrative in CAR, (98thin world rankings) and the Tigray war in Ethiopia which is 130th in world rankings, who have reportedly published a disinformation and propaganda ecosystem through “fake” media outlets to discredit journalists who do not comply with the patriotic injunctions imposed by many of those in power. This, the NGO denounces.The same goes with the Democratic Republic of Congo (120th) and the M23 rebels in North Kivu region where journalists are trapped within the injunctions.
Reporters Without Frontiers have reportedly noted that “propaganda and disinformation thrive in a terrain that remains one of the most dangerous for journalists. “The French journalist Olivier Dubois regained his freedom after 711 days of captivity (in detention) in Mali and a total of five journalists were killed in the exercise of their functions between the end of September 2022 and January 2023 in Cameroon (World ranking 138th), Somalia (141st ), Rwanda (131st ) and Kenya (116th ).”
The press freedom watchdog equally noted that where investigations are opened to probe conflicts or deaths of journalists, they advance to a certain level and then are stopped. Investigations are not to go far enough especially when they are seen to be crossing a red line.
The watchdog refers to this environments as the multiplicity of impunity, “arbitrary arrests on spurious grounds particularly targeting investigative journalists”, citing the recent cases in Cameroon (Martinez Zogo) and that of Rwandan John Williams Ntwali.
Senegal and Tunisia are the two countries which have been identified to have plunged into an abyss as far as press freedom is concerned. Senegalese world ranking which used to be seen as, a model is positioned at 114th dropping 31 places to 145th. As the Senegalese president is reported to be seeking a third term faced by criticism of the opposition and some journalists, there has been a sharp deterioration in security conditions for journalists or media professionals. This led to the prosecution of Pape Alie Nang and Pape Ndiaye.
Tunisia, like many other African countries south of the Sahara, that used to be positioned 121st in world rankings also dropped steeply by 27 places to 148th. The NGO sees that Tunisia’s Kais Saied has become “increasingly… intolerant of criticism of the press”.
The watchdog states that press freedom ranking in the (180 countries) in Africa is increasingly described by the study as “difficult” in 40 percent of the countries as against 33 percent in 2022.
The African rankings which was had after this 21st edition of the annual world rankings was compiled on the basis of “quantitative survey of abuses committed against journalists and a qualitative study on the other.
The ten (10) highest ranked countries in Africa are Namibia (worldranking 22nd) 1st in Africa ; South Africa (25th) 2nd; Cape Verde (33) 3rd, Seychelles (34) 4th ; Gambia (46th) 5th in Africa; Ivory Coast (54th) 6th ; Burkina Faso (58th) 7th ; Nigeria (61st) 8th ; Ghana (62nd) 9th ;Mauritius (63) 10th.
Media professionals have also been warned against cyber criminality, misuse of computers and Artifcial intelligence (AI) to generate false news and manipulated images including unverified social media news. Seven out of ten countries have poor conditions for the practice.