Authoritarian governments crack down on press freedoms amid COVID-19 pandemic: Report

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The novel coronavirus is compounding preexisting threats to press freedoms around the world, according to a new report by the international watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders.

“The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the negative factors threatening the right to reliable information, with the pandemic itself an exacerbating factor,” Christophe Deloire, the organization’s secretary-general, wrote in the report.

Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French acronym RSF, released its annual ranking of countries based on the strength of their press freedoms last week, highlighting several countries – including Iran (ranked 173rd) and China (ranked 177th) – whose poor rankings reflect the way those governments “censored their major coronavirus outbreaks extensively.”

“Iran and China are two countries that saw the biggest outbreaks early on, and they’re the two countries where you didn’t really see journalists being able to operate,” Dokhi Fassihian, Executive Director of Reporters Without Borders USA, told ABC News. “I don’t for a minute believe the numbers they’re reporting.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/authoritarian-governments-crack-down-on-press-freedoms-amid-covid-19-pandemic-report/ar-BB13jqdc?li=BBnb7Kz

[billh58]

1. And of course The Orange Anus-Mouth

made the list:

A trio of Scandinavian nations – Norway, Finland, and Denmark – topped the list, while the United States (ranked 45th) trailed much of Europe, as President Donald Trump has continued to attack the credibility of the media’s reporting on his administration’s response to the crisis and has at times spread potentially dangerous misinformation during his daily press briefings. (From the link in the OP)

The bastion of Democracy ranked 45th because of asswipe's vendetta against the press for telling the truth, and for contributing lies and misinformation at "briefings" which are in reality right-wing political re-election fiascos.