May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, and the Media Association of TT (MATT) believes local journalists must be lauded as this country moved up in the World Press Freedom ranking by the NGO Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF, or Reporters Without Borders).
TT moved up by six points, from 31 to 25, out of 180 countries, a statement from MATT said on Tuesday.
It added that RSF described the media landscape in TT as a "parliamentary democracy with a vibrant media landscape and civil society, (where) freedom of the press is a constitutionally guaranteed and widely respected right. Media pluralism is strong with multiple media outlets expressing a multitude of viewpoints."
The watchdog organisation reports that with "zero journalists imprisoned, killed or missing in 2021," TT provides "a generally safe and protected environment for the profession."
MATT cited RSF’s website, which says the RSF World Press Freedom Index compares journalists’ level of freedom in 180 countries and territories.
This comparison, the association said, is based on a definition of press freedom formulated by RSF and compiled on the basis of responses from press-freedom specialists in 180 countries.
"Press freedom indicators include political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and safety," the statement said.
"However, both RSF and TT journalists recognise these numbers reflect a sharp vigilance to ensure freedom of the press, which continually comes under threat from the institutions over which it acts as a watchdog, and also greater threats to journalists elsewhere."
In TT today, journalists remain watchful over the potentially chilling effects of problematic items of legislation, including the Financial Intelligence Act, the Data Protection Act (Interception of Communications Act), the Integrity in Public Life Act, the Criminal Libel and Defamation Act and the Cybercrime Bill 2017.
In this past year, MATT said it had been continually vigilant over the media’s access to state-held press conferences and information in the population’s interest.
"On this day, the MATT stands in reflection and grief as the Committee to Protect Journalists (an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide) reports that some 67 journalists and media workers were killed in 2022, the highest number since 2018, an increase of 50 per cent from 2021," the statement said. "The CPJ attributes this rise in journalists’ deaths to the number of journalists killed covering the Ukraine war and, concerningly for our region, ‘a sharp rise in killings in Latin America.’"
The statement quoted the CPJ as saying more than half of the 67 killings occurred in just three countries – Ukraine (15), Mexico (13), and Haiti (seven), the highest yearly numbers CPJ has ever recorded for these countries.
In Mexico and Haiti, reporters were "the targets of brutal murders for their work," with the "vast majority of perpetrators" not being held accountable.
Mexico features on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which features
