RESSA CONVICTION HIGHLIGHTS DECLINE OF PRESS FREEDOM WORLDWIDE: AP

The conviction of two Filipino journalists for libel is a blow to press freedom and comes as media watchdogs track declines in press freedoms and democratic institutions around the world, Tali Arbel wrote for the Associated Press (AP) late on June 16, 2020,

A Manila court found Maria Ressa of the online news site Rappler Inc. and former reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr. guilty of libeling a wealthy businessman. Officials have maintained that the criminal complaints against Ressa and Rappler are not a press freedom issue. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that there are 248 journalists imprisoned around the world, with the highest numbers in China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The conviction is the latest move by the government to intimidate journalists, said Reporters Without Borders, which tracks press freedoms. It called Ressa's conviction a “shocking judicial masquerade.” Ostensibly democratic countries are using vague laws to criminalize reporting, leading to more journalists in jail, while individual journalists more often find themselves at the mercy of social media harassment aimed at intimidating them, said Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Democracies are restricting press freedom more and more,” he said.

Reporters Without Borders has cited a litany of challenges to press freedom, including a rise in authoritarian or populist regimes trying to suppress independent journalism, disinformation and laws against disinformation that are turned against media outlets. It also notes the financial pressures faced by many news outlets, as well as increased political polarization. Freedom House, a U.S. nonprofit that tracks democracies, says press freedoms are eroding as elected leaders in democracies seek to silence critical voices, efforts that it links to a decline in democracy itself. More than half of the world’s established democracies have deteriorated over the past 14 years, it says.