Spain drops four positions in press freedom, with "chronic job insecurity," according to RSF

MADRID, 3 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Spain has dropped four places in the Reporters Without Borders 2023 World Press Freedom Index, passing or occupying 36th place, although it loses only 1.34 points in the overall ranking of the table.

According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Classification of Reproteros Sin Fronteros that is presented this Wednesday in Cádiz, coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, Spain has gone from adding 76.71 points out of 100, in the 2022 edition, at 75.37 points, in the 2023 edition.

Despite enjoying, in general, a climate favorable to the free exercise of journalism and remaining among the 30% of countries in the world with a "good or fairly good" situation for freedom of information, media professionals in Spain continue to suffer a "worrying and already chronicled" precariousness.

It is precisely the economic indicator in which Spain once again registered its worst result, falling to 60.33 points out of 100, in 2023, compared to the 63.38 registered in 2022. RSF considers that the economic context in which they operate Spanish journalists "is, by far, the indicator with the lowest score" by the panel of experts on press freedom (researchers, university professors, journalists, specialists in human rights and freedom of expression...) who has responded to the hundreds of questions that make up the questionnaire on which, in its qualitative section, the RSF Classification is based.

Another factor that explains Spain's decline in the ranking is the worsening of the legal and juridical indicator --which measures the legislative context in which the journalistic profession operates--, a movement that RSF interprets as unfavorable expectations regarding the repeal of the most controversial and harmful articles for the freedom of information of the "Gag Law".

According to the RSF report, the blockade in Congress of the reform of the law, "one of the outstanding promises of the Government and its partners for the current legislature, has cooled the perception that experts in the sector have regarding the legal and legal environment that surrounds the press in Spain".

The journalists' organization has also recalled that other reforms to decriminalize so-called "opinion crimes" have not gone ahead and, nevertheless, "abusive legal actions (SLAPP) against media and journalists have multiplied." The legal context indicator falls to 78.74 points, compared to 82.16, in 2022.

The strong politicization of the media, increasingly infected with the polarization that affects Spanish politics and increasingly "incapable of respecting the essential limits between information and opinion, also contributes to eroding" press freedom in Spain. .

However, Reporters Without Borders has highlighted that the country's socio-cultural climate is among the most favorable to freedom of information in its environment and attacks on the press are at historical and European lows, after a few years of much greater police violence. and citizen.

Journalists, however, see this improvement offset by a worsening of hostility and harassment on social networks.