Andrew Siboniso Gininda

 

A map showing stats of the freedom of the press for 2014

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication expression through mediums including various electronic media and published materials. While that freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, it preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

Now comparing South Africa and the United states among other countries in Africa and around the world as to whether or not the media has freedom. It shows that South Africa is free in some ways though not completely free as research shows that South Africa is number 39 in the world whish shows some improvement because in 2014 it was on number 42, meaning it went by positions.

Statistics of reporters without boders for 2014

 

Well I can’t say the same about the United States because instead of it going up, it is going down even further. In 2014 it was on number 46 and now it is on number 49, meaning that there is no improvement in this country but the government is gaining complete of the press bit by bit.

In Africa, South Africa is position three with Namibia on position one and Ghana on position two, which means in Africa, especially in the Southern part of Africa media censorship is not that strong compared to countries in the middle east where there is no freedom of the press at all, meaning that journalists are captures, threatened or even killed in this countries. Those countries includes countries like Iraq, Seira Lione and Russia among others.

The statistic of journalists that were killed and imprisoned in 2015

According to The World Press Index, Europe and Asia are the most dangerous continents to be around as journalists, especially in the middle east which is where most journalist are killed for doing what they call “their job”. For South Africa it shows that we are getting somewhere and it shows that if there was no so much corruption in our country we would have complete freedom of the press but for now there’s a lot to be done if we want to see that happening.

In countries like Namibia as it is quite clear that there is no censorship, the press is free, its either there is no corruption which I don’t believe there is such thing or there is a policy that the press is bound to adhere to so there is no need for them to be censored because they know what to and what no to write in the media.