The ‘World Press Freedom Index 2017’ released yesterday has ranked Sri Lanka at 141st place out of 180 countries.
Last year too, Sri Lanka was placed on the same ranking. Thus the country marked no improvement or deterioration in relation to global press freedom rankings this year.
The World Press Freedom Index was published by the ‘Reporters Without Borders’, an international non-profit, non-governmental organisation that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press.
From 165th place in 2015, Sri Lanka moved 24 ranks up in 2016 to 141 and attributed this improvement to the change of Governments in early 2015.
‘Reporters Without Borders’ in its country specific analysis this year raised concerns over the Sri Lankan Government’s call to register all news websites with the Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media Ministry.
“This vague and disproportionate directive immediately reminded the media and citizens and journalists of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s censorship methods” it commented.
“The new government also assured journalists that they would not be persecuted due to their political views or their coverage of sensitive subjects such as corruption and human rights violations by the military. However, an attack on journalist Freddy Gamage in June 2016 fuelled doubts of both the public and media freedom defenders” it added.
The index has categorised countries as “Good Situation, Satisfactory Situation, Noticeable Problem, Difficult Situation and Very Serious Situation” as per their performance on the press freedom front . Out of these categories Sri Lanka falls into the category of “Difficult Situation”.
According to the Index released yesterday Norway ranked first and North Korea ranked last in terms of press freedom. The Reporters Without Boarders website also noted that a number of democracies including the US and the UK have fallen in the Index.
“Donald Trump’s rise to power in the United States and the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom were marked by high-profile media bashing, a highly toxic anti-media discourse that drove the world into a new era of post-truth, disinformation, and fake news,” it stated.