M-20 meet laments declining freedom of the press in G20 nations

Press freedom and the state of the media is clearly not a priority for the G20 summit. No session, pre-summit meeting, or ministerial meeting was dedicated to the subject, even as subjects from climate change to sustainable development of cities were deliberated at length in the cosy comfort of five-star resorts and hotels.

Therefore, prominent editors and journalists from G20 countries and others came together this week for an online discussion on the challenges faced by the media in Europe and Africa, and also in countries like India and Myanmar. The event was called M20, or the Media-20 Online Summit.

Hosted by Indian media organisations concerned at the decline of press freedom, the conference was addressed among others by James Lemont of Financial Times, Edwy Plenel of France’s Mediapart, and Alan Rusbridger of The Prospect Magazine in the UK besides N Ram, director of The Hindu.

Introducing the session, Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire pointed out that "none of the problems that they (the G20) hope to solve can be solved if the media in their country is not free.”

India is ranked 161 on the Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 Press Freedom Index, lower even than Afghanistan, having slipped 11 ranks this year. But India is not the worst among G20 countries. Turkey is ranked at 165, making it the third-worst performer among G20 nations, after Saudi Arabia, which is at 170 and China, which is at 179. Russia is just one spot above Turkey. Even the United States, which is at 45, is behind G20 nations like Germany, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

While journalists and media outlets in countries like India and Myanmar face an existential crisis and onslaughts from the state, media in other G20 countries too face serious challenges. Some of the threats to media singled out at the conference were copyright violations of intellectual property and content by digital platforms, online disinformation, authoritarian politics, cyber attacks often backed by the state and attacks on dissent and diversity by choking small media outlets.

Speaking about the condition of press freedom in India, N Ram pointed to the recent FIR against the Editors Guild of India over their report on the media coverage of the Manipur violence, arrests of journalists in Jammu and Kashmir, takeover of “independent” news channel NDTV, and the closure of online portal Kashmir Walla. He said the situation in India is “difficult”, if not “serious”.

Ram reiterated that amendments to the Information Technology Act and digital media guidelines may give the government overwhelming powers to block any content it wants. Speaking about the official search at the Wire and union ministers' recent remarks against NewsClick, Ram pointed out that smear campaigns are often launched by the government with “the support of some TV news channels”. A few news channels are notorious…they do hit jobs on independent news organisations, he pointed out.

French journalist Edwy Plenel, founder of digital newspaper Mediapart, said, “My concern is about all the opinions invading our space, while our raison d’etre as the media is to provide facts.”

Myanmar is not part of the G20, but Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now, an independent outlet operating in exile said “Myanmar is like North Korea in terms of repression”, but is receiving scant international attention. The civil war in Myanmar has not received sufficient attention even in neighbouring India, and it is unlikely that Myanmar is occupying much mind space at the G20 summit either.

Kareem Sakka, publisher of Raseef22, a Beirut-based media outlet, pointed out that in dictatorships “good journalism is state enemy number one”. In Saudi Arabia, there are no journalists to be jailed and people can receive the death sentence for tweets; censorship is widespread and robust and even Google search results are censored, making journalism extremely difficult. But the world turns a blind eye because of business deals.

Woosuk Ken Choi, editor of the South Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo, said YouTubers often peddle fake news, which is then picked by sections of the mainstream media. He said several journalists in his country were being probed for false reports against a presidential candidate.

South African journalists Rochelle De Kock, editor of the Weekend Post, and Makhudu Sefara of Times Live, said mob violence has been growing in the country against journalists. While the government doesn’t directly suppress the press through arrests, there has been a rise in litigation against journalists, they added.

Ipek Yezdani, an independent journalist from Turkey, highlighted the growing control of the government in mainstream media. Ninety percent of mainstream media in Turkey is either directly or indirectly controlled by the government, she said.

In 2020, ahead of the G20 summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Reporters Without Borders had called for public support urging G20 capitals to obtain concrete press freedom improvements in Saudi Arabia — starting with the release of the country’s 34 jailed journalists.