![Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on the extent of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Russia, via teleconference April 13 at a state residence outside Moscow. [Alexey Druzhinin/ SPUTNIK/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2020/04/21/23658-putain-739_416.webp)
The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian regimes including those of China, Russia and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, according to activists.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings released on Sunday (April 19) that the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom.
The outbreak has encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact people are stunned and mobilisation has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times", RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire told AFP on Tuesday (April 21).
RSF accused the regimes of China and Iran -- in 177th and 173rd place respectively out of 180 countries ranked -- of censoring coverage of major coronavirus outbreaks.
Alluding to accusations that Beijing concealed the initial extent of the pandemic, RSF said it "maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis".
It added that there was a "clear correlation" between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country's ranking in the index.
While Norway topped the index for the fourth year in a row as having the freest press, Finland was again the runner-up.
'Strongmen are consolidating their grip'
The Kremlin, under President Vladimir Putin, is also persevering with "efforts to control the internet, using ever more elaborate methods", the report said, citing a law that would allow the country to disconnect the Russian internet from the rest of the world.
The Russian regime sits in 149th place in the RSF rankings.
"The prospect of a Chinese-style scenario (in Russia) is alarming," RSF said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official hit back April 21, claiming RSF "has always been biased against China" and adding that Beijing welcomes reporters from other countries to work in China -- "while adhering to laws and regulations".
"Almost everywhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, strongmen are consolidating their grip on news and information," RSF noted.
The RSF warning comes on the back of a study by the European Union (EU) issued on April 1 that found both the Russian and Chinese regimes continue to spread damaging disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, endangering lives worldwide and undermining democratic societies.
At the same time, the disinformation campaigns by both governments provide high praise for their own regimes, even as the countries have performed questionably in countering the pandemic.
For example, Russian propaganda has been extolling Moscow's performance in fighting COVID-19, even though authorities in Russia are frantically locking down their own country against a pandemic that they were late to recognise.
Meanwhile in China, propagandists have been trying to gloss over the reported first appearance of COVID-19 in a Wuhan wet market, suggesting, for instance, that it was brought to Wuhan by US military personnel or that it may have originated in Italy, the EU study said.
Media freedom has no meaning at all. What is the goodness of media freedom when voices of the people are ignored? In the Western countries, the media is free, but what's the point? Has it cured any real pain of the people? No. Since one and a half months, millions of people in the western and eastern countries, in Christian and Muslim countries and even in India, where the inhabitants are Hindus and Buddhists, have held hundreds of demonstrations to prevent the fighting and killing of people, especially innocent children and women of Gaza, but what was the benefit? Nothing. Every day, hundreds of innocent people, especially children, are killed by Israeli terrorist forces, but no country in the world wants or can stop all these atrocities? So in this case, if there is freedom of the media, what is the meaning and what is the benefit of it? To speak about China and Russia. I don't know myself about Russia, but I have read many times in Salaam Times magazine that Chinese oppress Uyghur Muslims, murder them, rape their women, destroy their holy places, but where is the force and or the organization to stop China? Sunni Muslims are oppressed in Iran and they are deprived of religious freedom, but who would stop Iran from doing so? Nobody. So considering the atrocities and crimes of Israel, Iran and China, freedom of speech, freedom of media, human rights, children's rights, women's rights... are just words and that's it!
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Governments of the world countries should try to share the exact number of infected, killed and recovered people through media. Also these governments should share what plans or programs they have launched in fight against corona through the media so that all people of the world know what is going on in all countries. All countries in the world must abandon their prior negative rivalries and fight shoulder by shoulder against corona virus. Corona virus threatens all the humanity on earth. If the virus continues for one year more, a major human disaster will occur.
Reply3 Comment
Media outlets have already been under pressure in China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and a number of other dictator countries. For example, Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) launched large gatherings in Pakistan which were attended by hundreds of thousands of people; however, the army and intelligence [agencies] did not let Pakistani media outlets publish their news. Similarly, the issue of cruelties against Muslims in China were neither covered by Chinese media nor other journalists were allowed to write on it. Iran also has similar issues. I don't know about the situation of Russia but I think there are plenty of restrictions.
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