Taiwan falls four places in RSFs world press freedom ranking

DRAWBACKS: The lack of effective action to improve news coverage and ensure the public’s right to reliable information are problems, Reporters Without Borders said

• Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan dropped four places to 28th in this year’s World Press Freedom Index compared with the previous year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said yesterday, warning that global press freedom conditions were at a record low.

Taiwan’s ranking out of 180 countries and territories declined from 24th last year to 28th this year, with its global score falling from 77.04 to 75.44, the index showed.

While the nation’s ranking dropped, its media environment remained “one of the safest” for journalists, even among democracies, Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy manager of RSF’s East Asian Bureau, told a news conference in Taipei.

There were no reports of harassment or detentions of journalists by authorities, Bielakowska said.

Taiwan placed second in the Asia-Pacific region, trailing New Zealand (22nd), but ahead of others such as Australia (33rd), South Korea (47th) and Japan (62nd).

However, the lack of effective government action over the past decade to improve the quality of news coverage and ensure the public’s right to reliable information had become “a major problem” detrimental to Taiwan’s democratic system, RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau head Cedric Alviani said.

Taiwan’s media firms continued to face economic challenges, such as a slump in advertising revenue and government funding cuts for public media, Bielakowska said.

Across the Taiwan Strait, Hong Kong ranked 140th and China 178th, both unchanged from last year, the index showed.

However, the gap between Hong Kong and China was “closing quickly” because Hong Kong’s National Security Law — imposed in 2020 by Beijing following mass anti-government protests — continued to erode the territory’s press freedom, Bielakowska said.

In February, Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was sentenced to 20 years in prison — the harshest punishment to date under the law — after being found guilty of “conspiring to collude with foreign forces” and “publishing seditious articles.”

At least 13 foreign journalists had been denied visas or barred from entering Hong Kong after the promulgation of the national security legislation, RSF said.

While there were no new arrests of journalists or raids on newsrooms in Hong Kong last year, RSF had learned of several cases of journalists being followed and harassed during their work, Bielakowska said.

Countries worldwide, including democracies, have increasingly used national security policies as “weapons” to target journalists and their reporting, she said.

More than half of the countries around the world now fall into “difficult” or “very serious” categories — the bottom two in the five-tier index, RSF said, adding that the press freedom situation was “at a 25-year low.”

When the group first launched the index in 2002, 20 percent of the global population lived in countries where press freedom conditions were categorized as “good,” but now less than 1 percent do, it said.

For the 10th consecutive year, Norway ranked first in the index, which is based on surveys with journalists worldwide. It was followed by the Netherlands and Estonia.