Slovakia's Press Freedom Under Threat as Global Journalism Faces Mounting Pressures

Slovakia's journalism landscape is under increasing pressure from harassment, lawsuits, and political attacks, according to Pavel Szalai from Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organization. Szalai's comments come alongside the release of the organization's latest World Press Freedom Index, which has tracked media freedom globally since 2002. The data reveals a dramatic deterioration in press freedom worldwide, with the percentage of the global population living in countries with the highest levels of press freedom plummeting from 20 percent in 2002 to less than 1 percent today. Meanwhile, the proportion of countries with poor press freedom situations has grown from 14 percent to a majority of nations. Szalai warned that media outlets, which should serve as watchdogs over political leaders, are losing influence while society faces an increasingly dark future for independent journalism.