3 May Press Freedom Day
Double sided; The duty of transferring information between the ruler and the ruled, politicians and the public rests with the free press.
Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on May 3:
With a decision taken by the UN General Assembly in 1993, May 3 is celebrated as World Press Freedom Day all over the world.
The press is the fourth power along with the legislature, executive and judiciary in developed democracies and plays very important roles in protecting and strengthening democracy.
Double sided; The duty of transferring information between the ruler and the ruled, politicians and the public rests with the free press.
Free press in a democratic country; It is a kind of safety valve against mismanagement, bribery and corruption with its researches and information that enlightens the public.
For that reason; In low-level democracies and autocracies that are not transparent and that compete with illegality with legality in their actions, administrators cannot tolerate the freedom of the press. The unfree press is used as a manipulation tool to manage public perceptions.
The freer and more ethical the press is, the freer and more developed the people in that country are. Therefore, the freedom of the press index appears as a very important criterion in measuring the development level of countries.
Reporters Without Borders: RSF
Reporters Without Borders (French: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) publishes its press freedom index on May 3 every year.
180 countries are evaluated in the RSF Press Freedom Index, and violations against journalists and media are converted into quantitative calculations by using various indicators. In the second part of the study, a qualitative research is conducted based on the answers given to 123 questions by hundreds of media freedom experts, including journalists, academics and human rights defenders, selected by the RSF, and the results are reached. As can be seen, the country ranking is based on scientific data, not political.
Let's get to the details of the report:
In the RSF report published on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, the same countries have always been at the top for years. Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The common features of these countries are that they are Scandinavian countries and have been ruled by social democracy for a long time.
The countries at the bottom of the list are; China (175), Myanmar (176), Turkmenistan (177), Iran (178), Eritrea (179) and North Korea (180). The common features of these countries are the fact that not only their press, but also all freedoms are at a very limited level.
Turkey's Place in the Ranking of Press Freedom:
Let's come to Turkey...
According to the 2022 World Press Freedom Index prepared by the organization, Turkey is ranked 149th out of 180 countries, rising four places compared to the previous year.
Turkey, which was ranked 153rd in 2021, seems to have moved up four places in this year's report. Turkey, which ranked 154th in 2020 and 157th in 2019, is positive, but it is still in the same category, that is, among the countries with a "bad press". The media of the last 28 countries are categorized in a very bad condition.
The fact that Turkey is in the same category with countries such as Belarus, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Palestine, Myanmar and South Sudan, which cannot even be compared in many respects, does not suit Atatürk's secular, democratic and social republic in his journey to the level of contemporary civilization.
One of President Erdogan's 2023, 2053 and 2071 goals should be to raise the country's freedom of the press and ensure a rapid improvement in this index. Because the level of freedom of the press is one of the main indicators of the development of that country, such as the ease of access to education and health services, and the length of human life.
concise sentence; In order for Turkey to be at the level of modern civilization and to maintain its existence there, it must increase the freedom of the press along with other freedoms.
