Report: Media Freedom ‘Has Never Been So Threatened’

[TomSea]

Report: Media Freedom ‘Has Never Been So Threatened’

Map: Reporters Without Borders 2017 World Press Freedom rankings

Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that globally “media freedom has never been so threatened,” as it released its annual press freedom index.

The media rights group pointed in particular to democratic countries as places where press freedoms declined during the past year.

“In sickening statements, Draconian laws, conflicts of interest, and even the use of physical violence, democratic governments are trampling on a freedom that should, in principle, be one of their leading performance indicators.”

The report said the reductions in press freedoms are most pronounced in places where “the authoritarian strongman model has triumphed,” such as Poland, Hungary and Turkey.

Continued: http://www.voanews.com/a/world-press-freedom-report-never-so-threatened/3826056.html

Lightest the best, darkest, the worst. We are in the 2nd echelon along with countries like Australia, South Africa, Chile, UK, France and Spain.

[geronl]

Lightest the best, darkest, the worst. We are in the 2nd echelon along with countries like Australia, South Africa, Chile, UK, France and Spain.

Really, Euro nations where censorship is common get the top rank?

[Sanguine]

So, western Europe and Scandinavia are the exemplars?  Where they just don't report news that disagrees with the government agenda?  But, I guess they could if they wanted to.

[geronl]

So, western Europe and Scandinavia are the exemplars?  Where they just don't report news that disagrees with the government agenda?  But, I guess they could if they wanted to.

How many German newspapers would give space to print a pro-fascist rant? none. They know better. Heck in the UK you can be found guilty of libel for printing something true.

Much of the "free press" is as free as Chechnya's (not)

[geronl]

Germany passes bill To Fine FaceBook, Twitter Up To $50MM For "Fake News"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-05/germany-passes-bill-fine-facebook-twitter-50mm-fake-news

[geronl]

Sweden prohibits hate speech, and defines it as publicly making statements that threaten or express disrespect for an ethnic group or similar group regarding their race, skin colour, national or ethnic origin, faith or sexual orientation.


Not the press but not free speech either

http://recordarmenews.blogspot.com/2016/12/swedish-court-fines-turkish-leader-for.html
Sweden Turkish leader denounces Armenians, get fined.

[r9etb]

So, western Europe and Scandinavia are the exemplars?  Where they just don't report news that disagrees with the government agenda?  But, I guess they could if they wanted to.

Well, yes, they are the exemplars.  Much better than here, at any rate.  If you look at France or England, to name a couple, you'll find media outlets (mainly newspapers) that have distinct and varied -- and unapologetic -- political viewpoints, and they quite often publish things that pointedly and vigorously disagree with the government agenda.

Contrast that to here, where the mainstream media has a predominantly liberal/left bias but claims "objectivity."

[geronl]

Well, yes, they are the exemplars.  Much better than here, at any rate.  If you look at France or England,

The map gives top marks to Germany and Scandinavia, where any "hate speech" gets you fined.

[geronl]

Contrast that to here, where the mainstream media has a predominantly liberal/left bias but claims "objectivity."

The left controls the predominant media in all countries it seems. There is no real contrast there.

[TomSea]

Part of this is also about persecution of journalists, are journalists gunned down in Sweden? Germany?

And before dissing Germany, anyone can access Bild.de ; they present opposing opinions and news being somewhat like the Sun is in England.  Bild is called right-wing.

I'm sure there is some leftist bias in those countries. Still, the light colored countries are the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand,  Germany, Ireland, Costa Rica and maybe a few other places.

[TomSea]

The map gives top marks to Germany and Scandinavia, where any "hate speech" gets you fined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild

They may not always be conservative but Bild is known for being "right wing".

[r9etb]

The left controls the predominant media in all countries it seems. There is no real contrast there.

You see a great deal of contrast when you compare the UK Guardian to the Times of London to the Telegraph, for example.  Same in France -- compare Le Figaro to Le Monde.

About the closest you get to that here, is the NY Post vs. the NY Times, or the Boston Globe vs. the Boston Herald  -- but those are outliers, not the norm.

[geronl]

Bild is called right-wing.

Which is meaningless in a world where Marine Le Pin can be called that

[geronl]

You see a great deal of contrast when you compare the UK Guardian to the Times of London to the Telegraph, for example.  Same in France -- compare Le Figaro to Le Monde.

About the closest you get to that here, is the NY Post vs. the NY Times, or the Boston Globe vs. the Boston Herald  -- but those are outliers, not the norm.

Which UK newspapers want to privatise the NHS and BBC?

[r9etb]

Which UK newspapers want to privatise the NHS and BBC?

Honestly, I have no idea if any of them do, as a matter of editorial policy. 

But if you do a simple search on "UK Telegraph Privatise the NHS" you'll see that they do a fair amount of reporting that's critical of the system.

Interestingly, doing the same search for the Guardian reveals that they do a lot of reporting about Privatisation, which seems mostly to be on the "don't do it" side of the fence.

So there you have it.

[TomSea]

Which is meaningless in a world where Marine Le Pin can be called that

Oh, what a valid point and analogy. Maybe all terms are useless then. 

[Sanguine]

Which is meaningless in a world where Marine Le Pin can be called that

Exactly.  Euro-right-wing is quite different from American right-wing.

[geronl]

"The grass is greener over there" is usually a fallacy. Those countries are more socialist than ours and the "conservative" press, such as it is, are generally fine with that socialism. In many cases their "conservatives" are to the left of our Democrats and nothing worth cheering for.

[Sanguine]

Part of this is also about persecution of journalists, are journalists gunned down in Sweden? Germany?

And before dissing Germany, anyone can access Bild.de ; they present opposing opinions and news being somewhat like the Sun is in England.  Bild is called right-wing.

I'm sure there is some leftist bias in those countries. Still, the light colored countries are the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand,  Germany, Ireland, Costa Rica and maybe a few other places.

They're not gunned down here either, yet the US is graded down from those countries.

And, we have some very active opposing opinions in the alternative media.   I'm not sure what criteria they used to determine "media freedom".

[TomSea]

The press may have some latitude than to just assume hate crime laws apply to the press, I haven't heard it applied to the press in Germany, maybe it exists. It looks like a whole topic to research on one's own. I haven't heard about any German writers being prosecuted if they said they don't like Islamic refugees and chances are, is it has happened.

Technology
What Germany’s New Hate Speech Law Means for Social Media
By Jillian Sequeira | April 13, 2017

American and German hate speech laws are clashing this month after the approval of a German bill that permits fines of up to 50 million euros on social networking sites that fail to remove hate speech and fake news content from their platforms. The bill still needs to be approved by parliament, but if it does pass, it will be the first concrete step by a government to limit and penalize fake news production.

Companies will have 24 hours to take down content that has been flagged by users before the fines kick in. They will also be obligated to file quarterly reports and turn in “malicious” users–an issue that may prove thorny, as demonstrated by Twitter’s recent lawsuit against the federal government.

American-based sites including Facebook and Twitter have been scrambling to fight fake news over the past year but have struggled to walk the line between freedom of speech and hate speech. In Germany, where the legacy of the Nazi reign has created some of the strictest hate speech laws on the books, that line has been far more defined for decades. Under German law, volksverhetzung, which can be translated as “incitement to hatred,” is a crime punishable by heavy fines or several years of imprisonment. These punishments are usually applied to Holocaust denial and overt racist threats but by shifting the focus to social media, Germany is taking on a wider and more varied range of bigoted behavior. German justice minister Heiko Maas told the German media that “there should be just as little tolerance for criminal rabble rousing on social networks as on the street.”

Continued: https://lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/technology-blog/germanys-hate-speech-law/

As the article mentions, Germany has their history; need we go into that?

I would like to see some proof instead of just assuming the German press is left-wing in a blanket type of statement.

[geronl]

They're not gunned down here either, yet the US is graded down from those countries.

And, we have some very active opposing opinions in the alternative media.   I'm not sure what criteria they used to determine "media freedom".

I would bet conservative media (like talk radio) is the reason we got downgraded

[TomSea]

"The grass is greener over there" is usually a fallacy. Those countries are more socialist than ours and the "conservative" press, such as it is, are generally fine with that socialism. In many cases their "conservatives" are to the left of our Democrats and nothing worth cheering for.

You are making blanket statements and they are largely unproven, Germany has its history, they watch hate speech, they are also not the whole world.  Might as well bring up that they were run by the Nazis if one is just tossing out, "oh, they are socialists".  Germany has a very vibrant powerful economy.

[geronl]

I would like to see some proof instead of just assuming the German press is left-wing in a blanket type of statement.

In a nation where the radical right is still socialist, it's pretty self-evident. And Bild is a sensationalist tabloid that often makes things up, should not even count.

[TomSea]

I'll bet that map has some merit, now, somehow folks are comparing the US to Germany 

When the real point seems to be that of oppressive governments.  Egypt, China and so on.

Do journalists have full transparency in the US? Maybe Iceland has more. One might remember countries like Iceland, etc. are a lot smaller.

[TomSea]

In a nation where the radical right is still socialist, it's pretty self-evident. And Bild is a sensationalist tabloid that often makes things up, should not even count.

What's next? Is one going to be saying that China, Libya, Mexico and Sudan have as free of a press as ours? What's the nitpicking between Germany and the US? By the way, nothing has been proven about "hate crime laws" and Germany's journalists yet. 

The links you left do not deal with individual journalists, should not even count.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-05/germany-passes-bill-fine-facebook-twitter-50mm-fake-news

http://recordarmenews.blogspot.com/2016/12/swedish-court-fines-turkish-leader-for.html