On May 3, the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day or World Press Day.
This year, UNESCO will lead the 25th celebration of World Press Freedom Day. This year’s global theme is ‘Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law’, and it will cover issues of media and the transparency of the political process, the independence and media literacy of the judicial system, and the accountability of state institutions towards the public. World Press Freedom Day this year will also examine contemporary challenges of ensuring press freedom online.
This year, India slipped two points as compared to 2017, on the World Press Freedom Index ranking, which is compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RWB). The 2018 World Press Freedom Index reflects growing bitterness towards journalists and also the hatred towards the media which has been openly encouraged by political leaders across the world poses a great threat to democracy.
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2018
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes the World Press Freedom Index every year since 2002 and it also measures the level of media freedom in 180 countries around the world. The freedom index measures the level of freedom available to journalists and not the quality of journalism.
The parameters that are evaluated for the index are:
· Level of pluralism
· Quality of the infrastructure in a country that supports the production of news and information
· Media independence in a country
· Transparency
· Environment and self-censorship
· Legal framework
India Ranking:
2018- 138
2017- 136
2016- 133
World Press Freedom Index Report 2018 by the RSF, placed India on 138th position out of 180 countries this year. It has downgraded India's position from 136 in 2017. Some of the reasons for the downgrade cited by the RSF included the killing of journalists in association with their jobs and hate speech targeting journalists shared on social media.
