Press Freedom Index warns disinformation poses major threat

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its Press Freedom Index 2023 annual report on Wednesday to mark World Press Freedom Day.

The index ranks countries on the press freedom environment for journalists. Of the 180 countries included in the ranking, 70% were branded as "bad."

Germany, although still considered "satisfactory," fell five spots in the ranking, down to 21st place, due to an increase in attacks on journalists.

The report focused its most dire warnings on the propagation of misinformation, made easier by the development of advanced technologies.

"The difference is being blurred between true and false, real and artificial, facts and artifices, jeopardizing the right to information," the RSF report said.

RSF warns against industry of disinformation

The report highlighted technologies like Midjourney — an AI program that can create high-definition images that are sometimes difficult to discern from real photos and that often go viral on social media platforms.

But the technology is only one side of the equation, the other side being the entire disinformation industry that intentionally seeks to undermine factual reporting.

The Forbidden Stories investigative journalism consortium, a project co-founded by RSF, earlier this year uncovered the activities of the Israeli firm "Team Jorge," which claims to have influenced dozens of elections by producing disinformation.

The report also pointed to billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of social media platform Twitter and his "arbitrary, payment-based approach to information to the extreme, showing that platforms are quicksand for journalism."

"It is the tech industry that allows disinformation to be produced, distributed and amplified," RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire told the AFP news agency. "Reliable information is drowned in a deluge of disinformation. We are less and less able to perceive the differences between the real and the artificial, the true and the false."

Where did other countries stand in the Press Freedom Index?

As for the country rankings, Germany was not the only one to make a move. Attacks on journalists also saw the United States fall three places to 45th, while Brazil rose 18 places to 92nd following the departure of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Norway took the top spot for the seventh year in a row, while Ireland rose to second place, jumping over the other Scandinavian countries that usually dominate the top of the ranking.

Greece held onto its spot of the EU's lowest press freedom ranking amid the ongoing scandal of intelligence services spying on journalists.

India, Turkey and Tajikistan all fell from "problematic" to "very bad," with the report pointing to the takeover of media organizations by Indian oligarchs close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the persecution of journalists in Turkey in the run-up to elections in May.

Russia also fell a further nine places, down to 164, amid a crackdown on media coverage of its invasion of Ukraine.

The bottom spot out of all 180 countries in the ranking was held "to no great surprise" by North Korea. China fell four spots into second-last place, and Vietnam came in 178th.

ab/sms (AFP, dpa)

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