WATCHDOG SAYS MEDIA FREEDOM HAS NEVER BEEN THREATENED AS IT IS NOW

Press freedom has never been as threatened as it is now, in the “new post-truth era of fake news” after the election of US President Donald Trump, Reporters Without Borders warned on Wednesday. Its annual World Press Freedom Index warned of the “highly toxic” media-bashing of Trump’s election campaign and Britain’s Brexit referendum. The situation is at “a tipping point,” it said bluntly. Media freedom is being undermined by the rise in surveillance and of authoritarian strongmen across the globe, the watchdog said. The US and Britain both slipped two places in the index to 43rd and 40th. “Nothing seems to be checking” the erosion of liberty of the press in leading democracies, it said.