Cameroon has been ranked 134th out of 180 countries by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), in its 2020 annual World Press Freedom Index.
The index which assesses press freedom in 180 countries around the world was published Tuesday January 5 with Cameroon occupying the 134th position, three places down from the 2019 index.
According to this ranking for the year 2020, Cameroon recorded 37.38 abuse score, 43.17 underlying situation score giving a global score of 43.28 with a 0.04 difference with 2019.
In 2020, at least two journalists were arrested in Cameroon in the exercise of their duty, taken into police custody and later on released.
Norway tops the Index for the fourth consecutive year meanwhile North Korea lost one place to take the last position.
At the regional level, Africa comes as the third continent favourable for media freedom after suffering major reversals in the forms of prolonged arbitrary detention and online attacks.
The list of biggest declines in the 2020 Index is topped by Haiti, where journalists have often been targeted during violent nationwide protests for the past two years. After falling 21 places, it is now ranked 83rd.
Eritrea is the continent’s worst-ranked country.
According to RSF analysis of the 2020 press freedom index, “the next ten years will be pivotal for press freedom because of converging crises affecting the future of journalism: a geopolitical crisis (due to the aggressiveness of authoritarian regimes); a technological crisis (due to a lack of democratic guarantees); a democratic crisis (due to polarisation and repressive policies); a crisis of trust (due to suspicion and even hatred of the media); and an economic crisis (impoverishing quality journalism).”
