Following the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian State Duma adopted laws under which “false information” about Russia’s armed forces and other state bodies would be punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Russia ranks 164th on the list, dropping nine places compared with 2022. However, press freedom in Europe has been overshadowed by censorship in its east and the war in Ukraine. Norway tops the list with the highest global score for press freedom, followed by Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. According to RSF, China is the world’s largest prison for journalists, and its government conducts a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information worldwide.Ĭountries with the highest levels of media freedom According to RSF, The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the government’s official mouthpiece, is the only permitted news source for North Korea’s media.Ĭhina slipped four places over the course of 2022 to become the second most restrictive country in the world. North Korea has consistently ranked among the most censored countries. It ranks the political, economic, and sociocultural context as well as the legal framework and security of the press in 180 countries and territories.Īccording to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, North Korea has the worst press freedom, followed by China, Vietnam, Iran and Turkmenistan. The global media watchdog said the city has experienced an unprecedented setback since 2020, when the security law was introduced.To measure the pulse of press freedom around the globe, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes an annual index. Hong Kong ranked 140th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index released last month. Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China’s rule in 1997, but critics say Beijing’s promise that it would keep the city’s freedoms is becoming increasingly threadbare. Two former Stand News editors were charged under a colonial-era sedition law that has been used increasingly to snuff out critical voices. In the crackdown on dissent that followed the 2019 protests, two vocal media outlets - Apple Daily and Stand News - have been forced to shut down and some of their top managers have been prosecuted.Īpple Daily founder Jimmy Lai faces collusion charges under a sweeping national security law enacted in 2020. The judging panel hailed it as “an investigative reporting classic” that had chased “the smallest clues, interrogating the powerful without fear or favor.” The story Choy co-produced, titled “7.21 Who Owns the Truth,” won the Chinese-language documentary award at the Human Rights Press Awards in 2021. She said she hoped the outcome would be encouraging news to all reporters still working hard in the city. No matter I win or lose today, the persistence (demonstrated) over the last few years is already a meaningful thing.” “But I believe our beliefs in our hearts can’t be taken away that easily. “Over the last few years, we might have found that many things have disappeared quietly,” she said. There is no reason that “bona fide journalism” should be excluded from the phrase, it added.Ĭhoy told reporters outside the court the she was happy to learn about the judgment, saying it had stated the importance of the city’s constitutionally protected freedom of press and speech. “The issues of falsity and knowledge were wrongly decided against the appellant because her journalistic investigation into the use of the vehicle on the dates in question did fall into the wide catchall category of ‘other traffic and transport related matters’,” the judgment read.Įven if it did not, it was “not an irresistible inference that she knew that to be false,” the judgment said. On Monday, judges of the city’s top court unanimously ruled in Choy’s favor in a written judgment, quashing her conviction and setting aside the sentence.
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