Costa Rica drops in World Press Freedom Ranking

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By Daniel Villatoro García

Costa Rica has fallen again for the second consecutive year in the world ranking of the NGO Reporters without borders.

Costa Rica ranks 26th ahead of Spain (30).

In the 2023 report, the country ranked 23rd, after losing 15 steps. Previously, Costa Rica had positioned itself in 2022 in the eighth rung and fifth place in the 2021 edition. In previous years, the country had ranked 10th in the 2019 edition; while in 2020 it reached seventh place.

The NGO has warned that political authorities have become one of the main threats to press freedom around the world due to the increase of governments and authorities that fail in their role of ensuring an exemplary framework for the exercise of journalism and access to reliable information.

This is evident from the latest World Press Freedom Classification prepared by the organization, which highlights that the political aspect, one of the five indicators that come into play in its report, is the one that descends the most worldwide in the last year.

“RSF notes a worrying deterioration in support and respect for the autonomy of the media, as well as an increase in pressure exerted by States or other political actors on them, says the document published this Friday by RSF, which denounces that this year – it is characterized by the manifest absence of political will – to protect journalists.

This article has been translated from the original which first appeered in El Pais