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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
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday April 28 2017, @10:22PM
Hence my conclusion: Whoever wins the next general election - which is presumably going to be the Conservatives under Theresa May - should be in power until 2022. 2022-2019 = 3 years, during which time the Conservatives under May will be able to pass any legislation they (and Theresa May in particular) can get through the Houses of Commons and Lords. I don't hate Britain at all, it's what the Conservatives (and Theresa May in particular) are almost certainly going to *do* to it that's concerning me.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!