The 21st edition of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index ranks Canada 15th out of 180 countries and territories, while Norway maintains its first place for the seventh consecutive year.
The podium is completed by Ireland and Denmark.
Canada has therefore moved up four places compared to the ranking unveiled last year.
France occupies 24th place in the ranking published on Wednesday. The United Kingdom is in 26th place, the United States in 45th place and Mexico in 128th place. Mexico has the highest number of missing journalists in the world, a total of 28 in 20 years.
The countries that occupy the last three places are Vietnam, in 178th place, followed by China and North Korea. Russia is in 164th position.
In a press release published at the same time as the press freedom ranking, Reporters dans frontières reports that the situation can be qualified:
- of “very serious” in 31 countries,
- of “difficult” in 42 others,
- of “problem” in 55 countries,
- and “good” or “rather good” in 52 countries.
The organization summarizes its assessment by perceiving that the conditions for practicing journalism are poor in 7 out of 10 countries and satisfactory in barely 3 out of 10 countries.
The Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, points out that the world ranking shows the existence of a very great volatility of situations, with significant rises and falls, for example Brazil’s gain of 18 places and the fall of 31 places from Senegal.
“This instability is the effect of increased aggressiveness from power in many countries and growing animosity towards journalists on social media and in the physical world. Volatility is also the product of the growth of the simulacrum industry, which shapes and distributes disinformation, and provides the tools to manufacture it”, according to Christophe Deloire.
In 118 countries, the majority of respondents to the questionnaire report the involvement of political actors in their country in massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns, on a regular or systematic basis. In these places, the difference between true and false, real and artificial, facts and artifacts is blurring, jeopardizing the right to information, according to RSF’s findings.