By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The improvement seen in the 2018 annual Reporters Without Borders (RFS) report on freedom of press in Latin America was short lived. This year’s report shows reporters covering the region face more violent and intimidating working conditions.
“The environment for journalists is more and more hostile and coverage of sensitive subjects increasingly triggers violence, intimidation and harassment of every kind,“ says the report released ahead of the May 3rd World Press Freedom Day.
According to RFS, Mexico is still Latin America’s most dangerous country for journalists, coming in at 144th place, with at least ten journalists killed in 2018 because of their job.
“Collusion between organized crime, corrupt officials and politicians, especially at the local level, poses a grave threat to journalists’ safety and cripples the judicial system at all levels,” says the report.
Elections in major Latin American countries last year, like Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Colombia, and El Salvador prompted an increase in verbal and physical attacks on journalists, especially by politicians, government officials, and cyber-activists, reinforcing a climate of mistrust and attacks towards the media.
Nicaragua registered the steepest decline from 2017 to 2018, twenty-four places. The crackdown on traditional and independent media by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government intensified in April of 2018 due to massive opposition protests and a deepening political crisis. Journalists in the Central American country are faced with constant harassment campaigns, death threats, and arbitrary arrests. Some have been jailed on terrorism charges while others have left the country to avoid being arrested.
Venezuela, which is facing the worst economic and political crisis of its history, fell five places in 2018, to 148th, and is close to joining the countries colored “black” on the World Press Freedom map.
“As the crackdown on independent media intensified in 2018, RSF registered a record number of arbitrary arrests and cases of violence by the Venezuelan police and intelligence services,” says the report.
Several foreign journalists were arrested, interrogated and in some cases deported. Venezuelan reporters, fearing for their lives, have left the country in high numbers, decreasing the outflow of information about the country’s situation significantly.
“If the political debate slides surreptitiously or openly towards a civil war-style atmosphere, in which journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Halting this fear transmission mechanism is a matter of the utmost urgency for anyone who values the freedom acquired in the course of history.”
Online attacks against journalists are also on the rise throughout Latin America and were vicious in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Colombia (up one at 129th), where journalists are still often the targets of death threats through social media, violence, and abduction.
“The election of a new conservative president, Ivan Duque, in August 2018, was a disappointment for any hopes of improving the press freedom climate,” says the entity.
Practically the only good news in the region in terms of freedom of the press comes from Costa Rica, which remained in 10th place and continues to be Latin America’s best-ranked country by far.