Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday April 28 2017, @08:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the british-values dept.

Journalists in the UK are less free to hold power to account than those working in South Africa, Chile or Lithuania, according to an index of press freedom around the world.

Laws permitting generalised surveillance, as well as a proposal for a new espionage act that could criminalise journalists and whistleblowers as spies, were cited by Reporters Without Borders as it knocked the UK down two places from last year, to 40th out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index.

In the past five years, the UK has slipped 12 places down the index. Rebecca Vincent, RSF's UK bureau director, said this year's ranking would have been worse were it not for a general decline in press freedom around the world, making journalists in Britain comparatively better off than those in countries such as Turkey and Syria.

[...] Among the concerns raised by RSF was the passage of the UK's "menacing" Investigatory Powers Act last November, which met only token resistance within parliament, despite giving UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world.

RSF said the act was a possible "death sentence" for investigative journalism in Britain, owing to its lack of protections for whistleblowers, journalists and their sources, and that it set a damaging precedent for other countries to follow.

Source: The Guardian


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by its_gonna_be_yuge! on Friday April 28 2017, @10:26AM (2 children)

    by its_gonna_be_yuge! (6454) on Friday April 28 2017, @10:26AM (#501099)

    "Denmark (#4) and the Netherlands (#5) have island bits—Greenland, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba—in the Americas."

    Heh. I've never thought of Greenland as being in the Americas, but maybe.

    After all, Canada is in a spirited war with Denmark over Greenland (or a small part of it):
              http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-and-denmark-whiskey-war-over-hans-island-2016-1 [businessinsider.com]

           

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday April 28 2017, @11:06AM (1 child)

    by zocalo (302) on Friday April 28 2017, @11:06AM (#501108)
    Technically, Greenland is part of the North American continental plate system (as are the western areas of Iceland), so in a geographical context it probably should be considered part of North America. Economically and politically though it's more aligned with Europe through its Danish ties, and that tends to be reflected more in the media etc., which I suspect that to drive the public impression that it is part of Europe.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!