Canada slips from Top 20 in media freedom index

Canada has slipped for the second straight year in an index ranking freedom of the media, in part because of police spying on journalists and demanding reporters turn over background materials.

The four-place decline to the 22nd spot overall, on top of last year’s 10-spot fall, leaves Canada out of the top 20 countries in terms of media freedom, Reporters Without Borders — or RSF — said Wednesday.

In announcing its 2017 World Press Freedom Index, RSF said Canada went through a “series of scandals” last year that highlighted the importance — and fragility — of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources.

Those incidents include Quebec provincial police spying on at least six journalists and seizing a reporter’s computer in a raid on a newspaper. Police in Montreal obtained numerous warrants to spy on a journalist’s cellphone, while the courts upheld a demand by the RCMP for a reporter to turn over background materials in a terrorism investigation.

“In all these cases, the aim was to identify sources, which journalists have a duty to protect,” RSF said in the report. “The obsession with surveillance and violations of the right to the confidentiality of sources have contributed to the continuing decline of many countries previously regarded as virtuous.”

The report also noted the arrest and potential lengthy jail term a reporter faces after his arrest last year covering a protest against the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador — a situation it called a “direct attack” on media freedom in Canada.