France ranks 21st in the world in 2024 and gains three places in one year

In its 2024 report on press freedom, Reporters Without Borders underlines that this year “states are failing to protect journalism”.

France is progressing slightly in the world press freedom rankings*. She is ranked 21st in 2024 by Reporters Without Borders and gains three places compared to 2023 when she was 24th. “States are failing to protect journalism”notes Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which published on Friday the 2024 edition of its world press freedom rankings, which franceinfo was able to consult.

RSF judges that at the global level, political authorities are threatening press freedom when they should be “the guarantors”. To establish its ranking, the NGO relies on five criteria : political, legal, economic, socio-cultural and security. And for this 22nd edition, it is the political indicator which is falling the most this year, with an overall fall of 7.6 points. This means that a growing number of States do not guarantee the public reliable and independent information, sometimes question the role of journalists, or even exploit the media. “RSF observes a worrying deterioration in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure exerted by the state or other political actors”writes the report.

Norway in 1st place for the 8th consecutive year

This trend affects even the largest democracies since the podium is disrupted. In 2024, the top three countries where press freedom is best respected are Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Norway thus retains its first place for the eighth consecutive year, despite a lower score than before. Ireland gives up its second place to Denmark and falls to eighth position. According to RSF, in Dublin, “judicial intimidation by political groups targets the media”.

Germany, 21st in 2023, rises to tenth place. The United Kingdom, 23rd, moved up three places. In these two countries, “if press freedom is not threatened by major political attacks, vigilance remains essential”, explains RSF. The NGO points to “the arrest of Frenchwoman Ariane Lavrilleux, journalist for Mediapart and Disclose, “following a complaint from the Ministry of the Armed Forces” as well as the continued detention of Julian Assange in the United Kingdom, “country where journalists in exile, particularly Iranians, are threatened from their country of origin without effective protection from the host authorities”.

At the end of the ranking, China, Vietnam and North Korea occupied the last three places in 2023. They are replaced this year by Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea, whose political indicator has plummeted. Afghanistan “continues to repress journalism since the Taliban returned to power”, RSF analysis. Syria and Eritrea are “two countries which have become lawless zones for the media, with a record number of journalists detained, disappeared or hostages”underlines the NGO.

“A “Russian” crusade against independent journalism”

Reporters Without Borders highlights this year “a manifest absence of political will on the part of the international community to enforce the principles of protection of journalists”, referring to the situation in the Middle East. For RSF, the war in Gaza is “marked by a record number of abuses committed against journalists and the media since October 2023”. Conditions for journalists have also deteriorated in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the context of the war in Ukraine and where media censorship has intensified.“in a spectacular mimicry of Russian acts of repression”.

Russia, 162nd in the world, “continues his crusade against independent journalism”. And its influence spreads to Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, or Azerbaijan, “with a wave of media repression before the presidential election”as far as Serbia, where pro-government media “spread Russian propaganda and authorities threaten exiled Russian journalists”.

For its part, Ukraine gained 18 places in the ranking and moved to 61st place, thanks to “the improvement of security indicators – fewer journalists killed – and political indicators”. “If the rule of law has not been applied throughout the territory since the Russian invasion, preventing the authorities from guaranteeing freedom of the press, political interference in free Ukraine has diminished”RSF analysis.

Argentina loses 26 places

The NGO warns of the very strong pressure that the press risks being subjected to in 2024, an electoral year which will see two billion citizens called to the polls. Because she emphasizes that in 2023, elections took place particularly in Latin America, which saw “the coming to power of claimed predators of press freedom and plurality of information”like the new Argentine president Javier Milei, “who, in a worrying symbolic act, closed the country’s largest news agency”. Argentina is 66th in the ranking, losing 26 places. RSF also mentions Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo where electoral periods “are regularly accompanied by violence against journalists”.

But the powers in place are not left out, as in Vietnam, where journalists who express themselves on social networks “are almost systematically locked up”, or in China, where the government “continues to exercise strict control over information channels, by implementing censorship and surveillance policies. China remains the country where the largest number of journalists in the world are imprisoned. In Europe, RSF still cites Italy, 46th in the ranking (down five places), which is one of the countries which “orchestrates a takeover of the media ecosystem”. The NGO points in particular to a deputy from the Italian majority, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who “is seeking to acquire the second press agency”.

*Methodology : The world press freedom ranking is produced by a committee of experts from academia and the media. It is established with five indicators, political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context and security, evaluated on the basis of a quantitative survey of abuses committed against journalists and the media, as well as a qualitative study based on the answers from hundreds of press freedom experts selected by RSF to around a hundred questions.