Defending Press Freedom | Free press dependent on legislation
Published:Friday | October 11, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The following is a finding on Jamaica contained in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) earlier this year.
Jamaica ranks among the countries that most respect freedom of information. The rare physical attacks on journalists must be offset against this, but no serious act of violence or threat to media freedom has been reported since February 2009, a month that saw two cases of abuse of authority by the Kingston police. While the law decriminalising defamation passed by the House of Representatives in 2013 was a step in the right direction, in May 2018, RSF shared its concerns with Parliament regarding a drafted Data Protection Act that, if passed, could have a chilling effect on journalists.