FRANCAISReporters sans frontières - Comments
7) The institutional learning
-When it comes to the number of journalists killed because of their profession, the methodology used by RSF appears to lack coherence and does not meet the scientific criteria of a database. Compared to the paper reports published from 1990 until 2002, the series since 2003, which are now available on Internet only, are less precise and do not include any more the “barometer” which used to give the names of the journalists killed in each country. Admittedly, the statistical category is quite clear. The association only takes into account deliberate murders that were officially proved and subjected to a judicial procedure whose inquiry is closed; journalists victims of a car or a plane accident are not included. But the geographical coverage of the census is much less accurate. The countries analysed in the annual directory are not necessarily the same from one year to another: the person in charge of a region is to decide and select them according to their alleged relevance. Yet the countries which are not mentioned any more are still followed by local correspondents. If the annual reports sometimes point out fewer countries, the geographical coverage of RSF has therefore not been reduced. On the contrary, it seems to get wider since the association is present in a growing number of countries. In other words, it is not possible to assert scientifically that the recorded increase of murders of journalists (87 in 2007 against 55 in 1987) corresponds to a growing violation of global press freedom. The trend also results from the spatial expansion of the statistical data of RSF. It is very possible that the number of killed journalists actually decreased if we compare the same panel of countries in 1987 and 2007. In this regard, the alarmist titles of the press should be put into perspective when they claim that the “attacks on journalists doubled in 2002”, “the attacks on journalists throughout the world increased in 2003” and “the freedom of the press deteriorates in the world and in Europe” (Le Monde of the 2nd of May 2003, the 4th of May 2004 and the 3rd of May 2006).
