News & Analysis

Everyone must be free to seek, receive and impart knowledge and information on all media, online and offline. Quality journalism enables citizens to make informed decisions about their society’s development. It also works to expose injustice, corruption, and the abuse of power. For this, journalism must be able to thrive, in an enabling environment in which they can work independently and without undue interference and in conditions of safety.

As we mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day, the memory of the attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris hangs in the air. So, too, do the shootings in Copenhagen, where a cartoonist was again among the targets. So far 2015 has not been much of a friend to freedom of expression. I’m afraid that I do not have good news: across the full length of our continent, media freedom is now under threat.

As I write, the news coverage of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s offices has been remarkably good, detailing the weekly’s provocations of Islam over the years. Less has been said about Charlie’s running battle with the French extreme right, and its role in widening the space for investigative reporting in France… This assassination has failed, stupidly and massively. It has created a bigger public than Charlie ever created on its own.

New corruption rankings were released this week by Transparency International, and they find the world steeped in corrupt practices, regardless of economic growth. More than two thirds of the 175 countries ranked scored under 50, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Denmark grabbed the top score, with 92, while North Korea and Somalia notched last, with an 8 score.