Malta has plunged 18 places to 65th in The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Boarders (RSF), which described growing animosity towards journalists even in Europe which typically champions press freedom.
“Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies,” the report reads.
Unsurprisingly, the best five spots within the 180 country-long list is Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland.
With regard to Europe, “the region where press freedom is the safest", it was found to be the region with the biggest negative downturn.
Four of this year’s five biggest falls in the Index are those of European countries: Malta (down 18 at 65th), Czech Republic (down 11 at 34th), Serbia (down 10 at 76th) and Slovakia (down 10 at 27th). The European model’s slow erosion is continuing.
An in-depth analysis was penned by RSF entitled: Even in Europe journalists get murdered.
On 16 October 2017, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered in a targeted car-bomb just metres away from her Bidnija residence.
“Caruana Galizia’s targeted car bomb death lifted the veil on the judicial harassment and intimidation to which journalists are routinely subjected in the island State.
“Caruana Galizia had been threatened for years and, at the time of her death, was the target of 42 civil suits and five criminal cases.”
In Slovakia, a reporter named Ján Kuciak was shot dead in his home in February 2018.
In the Czech Republic (down 11 at 34th), President Milos Zeman turned up at a press conference with a fake Kalashnikov inscribed with the words “for journalists.”
“The unleashing of hatred towards journalists is one of the worst threats to democracies,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
“Political leaders who fuel loathing for reporters bear heavy responsibility because they undermine the concept of public debate based on facts instead of propaganda. To dispute the legitimacy of journalism today is to play with extremely dangerous political fire.”
In a press freedom map linked to the report, Malta was classified as “problematic”, together with Ukraine, Hungary, Greece, Poland, Brazil and Peru.