Malta’s press freedom has continued to deteriorate in the past year, according to Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index, with the country slipping down a further four places. 

Published on Tuesday, RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index places Malta in the 81st spot, four places lower than it was in 2019. 

Malta ranks next to Kyrgystan, Haiti, Albania and Sierra Leone, with all five countries obtaining similar scores. Its score of 30.61 means Malta is classified as 'problematic', according to the index. 

Malta has been on a downward trend for a number of years and has gone down a staggering 36 places since 2013.

Malta's score since 2013. Screengrab: RSF

“Media threats during the past year continued, with several documented instances of denial of access to information or press events, toxic rhetoric by government officials, failure to recognise non-State issued press cards, as well as unlawful detention of press members (including international press) following a press conference in late 2019,” an analysis published with the index noted.

Once again, Hungary and Bulgaria were the only two member states to perform worse than Malta. Norway, Finland and Denmark topped the list, ranking top three of the 180 countries studied. 

RSF noted that its 2020 index shows that the coming decade will be “decisive for the future of journalism”, with the COVID-19 pandemic “highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information”.

Media ownership still an issue in Malta

As it said on several occasions, RSF pointed at media ownership as one of the main problems the country’s press freedom faces. 

“Media ownership remains dominated by the two main political parties in the country, leading to propaganda and disinformation,” the organisation lamented. 

In recent years, especially in the wake of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, RSF has been closely monitoring the state of press freedom in Malta.

In October, in a report to mark two years since the journalist was murdered in a car bomb outside her house, RSF called on the authorities to address “broader concerns with regard to Malta’s media environment”.

The organisation had also carried out fact-finding missions to the island following the Caruana Galizia's murder in October 2017.

How is the index calculated?

RSF compiles the index by polling media professionals, lawyers and sociologists in each country by means of an 87-question online survey. Those responses are then combined with reports of abuses or acts of violence against journalists during the year under evaluation.

RSF says its questionnaire is designed to evaluate pluralism, media independence, the media environment and self-censorship, a country's legislative framework, transparency and the quality of infrastructure supporting the production of news.