Bhutan has ranked 33 in the global press freedom rankings this year, a jump from last year’s position of 65. The report is published by Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international campaign group, which has been monitoring the level of freedom available to the media in 180 countries and territories for the past two decades. Meanwhile, journalists in the country say the step up could be due to more of what has happened elsewhere instead of the progress in the country. The report was published on Tuesday.
Reporters Without Borders defines press freedom as the effective possibility for journalists, as individuals and as groups, to select, produce and disseminate news and information in the public interest, independently from political, economic, legal and social interference, and without threats to their physical and mental safety.
The score is based on five indicators, which are political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context and safety.
Bhutan’s ranking has been dragged down by legislative and social indicators this time. It means problems such as the appointment of members of media regulatory body directly by the government, difficulty in getting access to state-held information and self-censorship by journalists in the country are some the factors.
“I think this happened because in the preceding year, basically there was no kind of malicious move by the government to curtail press freedom. And at the same time what counts in the ranking is that in Bhutan, no journalists were injured or killed,” said Tenzing Lamsang, from The Bhutanese.
However, he added there isn’t much difference between the scores of this time and the previous which indicates there hasn’t been much change.
“If you look at the scores more closely, in 2021 our scores were 71.14 and in 2022 it is 76.46. There is no huge movement in scores. So I suspect it is more to do with other countries not doing well which may explain why we are moving so high up the rankings,” he added.
“With safety, we have a better environment to work here in Bhutan but then coming to flow of information, I am still skeptical about the flow of information,” said Puran Gurung, an editor at Bhutan Today.
“If others look at it, it’s very nice to hear about it. But because it is us who work in the field and we know how the situation is, I feel like this ranking is not valid. Last year, I have personally experienced so many problems while trying to access information,” said Lhakpa, a reporter for Bhutan Times.
While the country’s rankings had a big leap, journalists in the country say it could fall next year.
“Looking at the current situation, it is even worse. We do not get certain information that we used to before. Even getting access to simple data has become difficult,” said Lhakpa.
“I think the challenge for journalists in Bhutan continues to be access to information, small market, small society and societal pressures. So we have a long way to go. We may be doing better than our neighbours but I think we have a long way to go,” said Tenzing Lamsang.
This year’s score means the country has a satisfactory media environment.
Meanwhile, Norway emerged as the top performer while North Korea is the worst-performing country on the World Press Freedom Index 2022.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
