Popular Hong Kong online media HK01 Network recently reported that, May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the World Press Freedom Index 2023. Among the 180 countries and regions in the world, Mainland China hit a new low with 179th as the second lowest. Taiwan ranked 35th, up from last year’s 38. Hong Kong ranked 140th. The index is scored based on five indicators including politics, law, economy, society, and security in various regions, and through questionnaires from journalists, scholars, and human rights activists. The total score is obtained by quantifying and counting incidents of journalists and media being violated. Norway ranked first with a score of 95.18, followed by Ireland and Denmark. According to RSF, the bottom three places in this year’s ranking are all Asian countries, namely Vietnam (178th), China (179th) and North Korea (180th). It was the first time China had fallen to such a low ranking since the survey began. Over the past year, the rhetoric and approach of the Beijing government’s propaganda has become closer and closer to that of North Korea. In 2002, RSF released the Press Freedom Index for each region of the world for the first time. Hong Kong was ranked 18th at the time. In the following 21 years, Hong Kong’s ranking suffered a freefall to the 140th today.
Source: HK01, May 4, 2023
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