• Governments across the world are increasingly clamping down on press freedom by enacting new laws, according to a global network of journalists.

BACKGROUND

• Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) said in its latest report that as many as 55 journalists have been killed since May last year.
• IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2019, said Press freedom globally is under intense and growing pressure, as illiberal-minded governments seek to shut down critical voices and, in many cases, deliberately erode the credibility of independent media.
• While on the one hand governments are attempting to curtail press freedom, on the other journalists around the world are being killed with impunity, the IPI added.