There is a sharp fall in the Seychelles press freedom index. In 2022, the island nation was ranked 13th out of 180 countries and was the highest ranking in Sub-Saharan Africa. Seychelles now has gone down 21 places and is currently 34 on the World Press Freedom Index. The Index is published by the Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a Paris-based non-governmental organisation.
The 2023 reports highlight the fact that journalism is threatened by the fake content industry and that the situation is very serious in 31 countries, difficult in 42, problematic in 55, and good or satisfactory in 52 countries. In other words, the environment for journalism is bad in seven out of 10 countries, and satisfactory in only three out of 10.
RSF defines press freedom as the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety. The purpose of the World Press Freedom Index is to compare the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories. The report is based on five indicators – political, economic, legislative, social, and security.
Seychelles lost points in all five indicators and the most points were lost in the legislative and social indicators. In 2022, the island nation scored 90.25 points in the social indicator placing it 11 but in 2023, went down to 41 with 80.23 points. For the legislative indicator, in 2022, Seychelles scored 83.31 points and was ranked 13 but went down to 43 in 2023 with 76.98 points.
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The chairman of the Association of Media Practitioners of Seychelles (AMPS), Rassin Vannier, who is also the chief editor of SNA, told reporters that Seychelles has gone down, and is hopeful that the country can get back into the first position in the Sub-Saharan region. On the question of the sharp decline, Vannier said it was partly due to the change in the RWB methodology used for the Index.
