Germany is declining in Reporters Without Borders’ global ranking for press freedom. Accordingly, violence against media workers has increased dramatically – often during protests against Corona’s measures.
In the RSF’s “World Press Freedom Ranking”, Germany fell for the first time from the first group. “Due to the frequent attacks on Corona demonstrations, we had to review the situation Freedom of the press Downgrading Germany from “good” to just “satisfactory”: a clear warning sign, Michael Redisk, spokesperson for the Reporters Without Borders board, explained in a balance sheet published in Berlin on Tuesday. Germany is ranked 13th in a comparison of 180 countries. By a similar method, the list has been in existence since 2013.
The organization justified the downgrade, “The main reason for this assessment is that violence against media workers in Germany has reached an unprecedented level in 2020.” In 2020, Reporters Without Borders counted no less than 65 violent attacks against journalists in the country. This means that the number has increased fivefold compared to 2019 (at least 13 attacks). The organization also assumes that the number of unreported cases in 2020 was higher than before.
“Journalists were beaten, kicked and thrown to the ground.”
According to the correspondent organization, the majority of physical and verbal attacks occurred on the sidelines or on the sidelines of the demonstrations against Corona’s measures. Journalists were beaten, kicked and shoved on the ground, spat on, harassed, insulted, threatened and prevented from working. More than three-quarters of physical assaults occurred during or on the margins of the demonstrations, including on the sidelines of the Corona protests, for example also in the demos against the ban on the left-wing internet platform linksunten.indymedia.org and in the presentations on May 1, “he sums up. Reporters Without Borders.
Not since the beginning of the ongoing statistics has been there very few countries in which Reporters Without Borders has rated freedom of the press as “good”. Their number decreased from 13 to 12; Down lights remain with smaller spells China, The former Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, North Korea and Eritrea in Africa.
The situation worsened all over the world
Reporters Without Borders condemned the publication by many governments, heads of state and government of misleading information on the Corona issue. The then President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, So it has been deployed just as ineffective or even dangerous means against Covid-19 as its counterparts Jair Bolsonaro In Brazil or Nicolas Maduro at Venezuela. The United States is 45th in the census (previous year: 46) and Austria is 17th (18) Switzerland In tenth place (8). According to statistics, Norway, Finland and Sweden from.
The pandemic According to Reporters Without Borders, increasingly repressive tendencies have been reinforced around the world: “In different countries such as China, Venezuela, Serbia and Kosovo, media workers have been arrested because of their reports on Corona,” the conclusion of the global survey. There are more than 100 media workers in prison in China, more than any other country in the world. “If it is to be hoped that the world will soon return to normal, then there must also be respect for the indispensable role. the press Back to an active community, “Rediske demanded.
