Brazil Drops to 107th Position in Global Press Freedom Ranking

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released the 2020 press freedom ranking. In this year’s edition, Brazil dropped two places and now ranks 107th among the 180 countries listed.

The American continent is ranked behind Europe as the best place to practice journalism. “Although the regional heavyweights, the United States and Brazil, have become true anti-models.”

The reason for this, according to the report, lies in the actions of two democratically elected heads of state: Donald Trump in the United States, and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Both are said to be “demoralizing the press and encouraging hatred for journalists in their countries”.

The document says that, in the Brazilian case, the drop in the ranking “is largely associated with Bolsonaro’s coming to power,” since he would contribute to “the deterioration of the environment in which journalists operate, marked by permanent hostility that permeates the government’s relationship with the press”.

The organization also addresses the so-called “hate cabinet”, which allegedly surrounds the president and promotes large-scale attacks on journalists who expose government policies. “Since the onset of the coronavirus epidemic, Jair Bolsonaro has redoubled his attacks on the press, which he holds responsible for ‘hysteria’ designed to create panic in the country,” the NGO said.

The organization finds that the president “systematically insults and attacks some of the country’s most prominent journalists and media outlets, which encourages allies to do the same, feeding a climate of hatred and mistrust towards the different players in the media”.

The country ranks well below its continental neighbors Uruguay (19th), Chile (51st) and Argentina (64th), although the latter two have dropped more positions (five and seven, respectively) than Brazil, which fell two positions.

The ranking’s methodology is based on a points system that analyses pluralism, independence, environment and self-censorship, legal framework, transparency, and quality of infrastructures to assist the production of information.

“In Latin America, physical attacks against the profession are typically matched by cyberbullying campaigns carried out by armies of trolls and/or supporters of authoritarian regimes. These methods of online censorship are growing dangerously and are particularly violent against female journalists,” says RSF.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo