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Photo from Ukrinform-UATV
The French NGO Reporters without borders released its annual press freedom ranking – and its an alarming one.
Ukraine moved one place from 102nd to 101st in their ranking. Despite reforms on media transparency, many news outlets are still, quote “underfunded and under oligarchs influence.”
The lack of information in territories controlled by Russian-backed separatists also undermines Ukraine’s rank.
According to the NGO’s head, press freedom worldwide is shrinking due to changing political attitudes towards the press.
The report also stated the situation was worsening in Europe, which has seen the biggest drop in press freedom.
RSF General Secretary Christophe Deloire shared his opinion on the unsettled journalistic issue, “The main conclusion of this report is the negative effect of a hatred of journalists on the freedom of the press. That hatred has been unleashed, particularly by comments by political leaders themselves. If we look at the entire world: in the Philippines, it’s the president who’s threatening journalists with murder; in the United States, the president uses Stalin-era expressions talking about “the enemy of the people”; in India, hate campaigns are waged against journalists and are led by political parties. In Europe too, political leaders insult journalists, weaken journalism and we end up with murdered journalists.”
