ISLAMABAD – In the World Press Freedom Index 2019, Pakistan faces thesetback in the latest rankings.
Pakistan has slipped three places in 2019’s World Press Freedom Indexlink. The index compiled by the ReportersSans Frontières or Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – a Paris-basedinternational non-profit organization working for freedom of information.
Out of 18o countries, RSF – powered by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – hasplaced Pakistan on 142nd with an overall global score of 45.83, threeplaces down from 2018’s 139th spot.
The agency has cited alleged media curbs on the country’s print andelectronic media, especially during the 2018’s general elections.
The military “establishment,” which opposes independent journalism, steppedup its harassment of the media significantly in the run-up to the July 2018general elections. There were many cases of brazen censorship in which themilitary exercised pressure on the media.
The ranking is still much improved when compared to 2013 when Pakistan wasranked at 159th.
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Here is a yearly ranking breakdown since 2013:*Year* *Ranking (Out of 180)*2013 1592014 1582015 1592016 1472017 1392018 1392019 142
With a marginally improved global score of 45.75, India is sitting twoplaces above Pakistan at 140th spot.
Even the champion countries of democracy and the freedom of expression havefailed to make it to the top ten, with the United Kingdom on the 33rd andthe United States reeling at the 48th position. All the top five countriesare European; Norway, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, and Denmark.
All authoritarian countries like North Korea (179), China (177), SaudiArabia (172), and Iran (170), are ranked among the bottom ten.
