RSF warns of historic decline in US Press Freedom, intensified by Trump’s return to the White House

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00:00At the top is Norway, at the bottom is Eritrea.

00:03Reporters Without Borders releasing its annual World Press Freedom Index,

00:07indicating a sharp drop in press freedom around the globe.

00:10Take a look.

00:12Media rights group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, is sounding alarm bells.

00:18Their annual report, released Friday, indicates a sharp drop in press freedom around the world,

00:23with the group's main index at its lowest ever score.

00:26Conditions for journalism globally are now categorized by the group as difficult.

00:32It's unfortunately a situation that we monitor on a yearly basis,

00:37and what we see is that 60% of the countries we monitor have a decline of press freedom.

00:44RSF reports that this decline is largely driven by worsening economic conditions for journalism,

00:49including in the United States, where funding for local media is drying up

00:53and creating vast news deserts across the country.

00:56RSF leadership is advocating for public policies that would provide more financial support to journalists.

01:04When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press,

01:10those who champion disinformation and propaganda.

01:13The media economy must urgently be restored to a state that is conducive to journalism

01:18and ensures the production of reliable information.

01:22RSF expressed concern about consequences of authoritarian shifts in government for journalism,

01:28singling out Donald Trump's funding cuts for Radio Free Europe and Voice of America,

01:33which it calls a victory for dictators around the world.

01:37Trump similarly announced funding cuts to NPR and PBS on Friday.

01:41The group also condemned the dire situation of journalists reporting from Gaza.

01:46RSF reports that nearly 200 journalists have been killed while covering the bombing of the Gaza Strip

01:51and says multiple newsrooms have been destroyed by the Israeli army.

01:55Joining us on the set is Blanche Marais, a data journalist,

02:00and one of the authors working on that report from Reporters Without Borders.

02:03Letit Blanche, thank you for coming in.

02:06I was just, first of all, wondering if you can give us a statement generally about the global situation,

02:11because it sounds very stark, very worrying.

02:14Yes, sure.

02:15This year, the World Press Freedom Index showed that the situation is really decreasing

02:21and a double red line has been crossed.

02:24First, the global score is now under 55 points out of 100,

02:30so it means that the mean of all countries in the world is under a difficult situation.

02:39If we look at the map, we see that half of the country are in orange or red,

02:46and a dark orange or red.

02:48And this is even worse if we look at the economic indicator,

02:52because on the economic indicator, it's three quarters of the world which is under this situation.

02:58So that's why we decided to show how difficult it is to face economic threats against the media in the world.

03:09A small patch of green on that map where the situation is defined as good.

03:14Real briefly, what are those countries doing right that so much of the rest of the world is getting wrong?

03:20Yeah, nowadays, only 1%, less than 1% of the population is now in a green area,

03:27and it's the country where we try to show how important it is to have different pluralism,

03:36different media and different ideas,

03:38but also not to block or suspend fundings if a media has a different point of view.

03:49Because if we have a large scale of information, it will allow to have more information and more freedom of speech.

03:58You're a data journalist.

03:59How is this report compiled?

04:02How do you compile the information for this report?

04:04Yes, sure.

04:05This report is taking a long time to create it.

04:09In fact, we send some surveys to experts in 180 countries,

04:14so that's a lot of countries,

04:16and we just send it to journalists, but also lawyers, media workers,

04:21and we try to ask them as many questions about the situation.

04:27For example, is press freedom in your constitution,

04:30or are there any threats against journalism,

04:35like physical, but also there are 130 questions.

04:39And thanks to these replies, we are able to make the global index.

04:47And the global index is divided in five different categories

04:50because we consider that press freedom situation is the ability of being a journalist

04:57without any political, economic, legal, social, or safety threats.

05:03And that's why we have these five indicators.

05:06Now, one thing that struck me, the U.S. falling to its lowest position ever,

05:10I believe it's 57th, that's only too worse than last year, though.

05:14Yes, sure.

05:15That's a really good point because, in fact,

05:17the situation in the U.S. is getting worse since a long time ago.

05:21And 10 years ago, it was 10 points a year.

05:25So the U.S. lost 10 points in 10 years.

05:29It's important to say that the economic fragility of the media and news media,

05:37local news media outlets in the U.S. is not a new thing.

05:41For example, since 2005, there have been two local news outlets closing each week.

05:49That's our estimation.

05:50So now what is very different this year is that the election of Donald Trump

05:57is just showing that the administration is not going to try to help these media

06:03which are in difficulties, but they are going to fret and stop the information.

06:12And then complicating all of this is big tech.

06:15What can you tell us about that?

06:16Yes, it's always a good thing to tell because, in fact,

06:22the structure of the information has changed the last year.

06:26But now we haven't seen a change in the economic structure of the media.

06:32In fact, all the tech platforms are having some advertisement fundings,

06:43but they don't share it to the independent journalists

06:48which are publishing only on their outlets, for example.

06:51And that's not only in the U.S.

06:53It's also the case in some very close country in Eastern Europe

06:57where bloggers are trying to share some specific independent information

07:02and they don't receive anything for their work, in fact.

07:06Last year, the deadliest year on record for journalists,

07:10much of them dying in the war in Gaza and around it with Lebanon.

07:15What has your report found in terms of declines in countries like Israel in terms of press freedom?

07:21It was the deadliest year for journalists in conflict zones.

07:27Yes, but the war in Gaza is really a tragedy

07:33because it's a bit different from the previous really dangerous war

07:38which were Iraq or Syria or Vietnam before.

07:42The thing is that journalists from the outside can't come to show what is really happening.

07:48So we often hear this mixture between journalists and terrorists

07:53saying that journalists in Gaza are just terrorists.

07:57But in fact, they are not at all.

07:59They are just risking their life to share information.

08:02And that's the reality on the field.

08:04So they go under a tent and they try to share the news to the international news and world.

08:13And what is really trying to do Israel is not only to close the frontier

08:21and to say, no, we don't want any foreign journalists inside,

08:26but also to kill the journalism from the inside.

08:30All right, Blanche.

08:30Thank you so much for coming in, Blanche Maras, from Reporters Without Borders.

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