Turkey ranks 157 in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, down two places from last year

OSLO

The 2017 World Press Freedom Index of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has seen Turkey fall to the rank of 157 among 180 countries.

“Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as Turkey, down two at 157th, and Egypt, 161st, where ‘media-phobia’ is now so pronounced that journalists are routinely accused of terrorism and all those who don’t offer loyalty are arbitrarily imprisoned,” RSF said in its statement made in the Norwegian capital of Oslo during the launch event of the index on April 25.

“A state of emergency has allowed authorities to eliminate dozens of media outlets with the stroke of a pen, reducing pluralism to a handful of low-circulated and targeted publications. Turkey is again the world’s biggest prison for professional journalists, with members of the press spending more than a year in prison before trial and long jail sentences becoming the new norm,” it added in a seperate note on Turkey.

The 2018 index ranking marked Turkey’s 58 point-decrease over the past 13 years, lagging just behind Rwanda, Belarus and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland top the index while China, Syria, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea again marked the last five countries ranked as being in a “very serious situation.”