In a generally more hostile environment towards journalists, Switzerland remains a beacon of safety and freedom, also for the press. The country climbed from seventh to fifth spot in this year’s World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters without Borders (RSF). The Index ranks 180 countries according to the level of freedom available to journalists. It is an evaluation of the media freedom situation based on an analysis of pluralism, independence of the media, quality of legislative framework and safety of journalists in each country.
General downward trend in Europe visible
The fifth position is the highest Switzerland has reached since the first Index published in 2002. As main reason for this result, RSF lists the fact that the Swiss public recently voted overwhelmingly against a Swiss initiative (“No Billag”) aiming to abolish license fee funding for the state radio and TV broadcaster.
In Europe, where the environment has traditionally been safe for journalists, four countries are among the five dropping the most in this year’s index: Malta, Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovakia. According to RSF, there is a trend visible in its most recent indexes showing a more and more alarming climate, in which journalist must operate nowadays: murders, threats to investigative reporters and unprecedented verbal attacks on the media have become apparent.
The country at the top of the Index is Norway, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland. The United States has fallen two places under Donald Trump, now occupying place 45.
Switzerland has recently been named the freest country in the world and is now claiming the top spot of the Human Freedom Index.
