Two-thirds of the world’s natural resources are extracted in countries where press freedom is seriously threatened

Resource predators, press freedom predators

China is the world’s largest coal producer, second largest mining producer and second largest logging producer. “Although blatant, the environmental destruction caused by mining in China is poorly documented because it is difficult to collect data, dangerous to get into the field and almost impossible to get sensitive information about these issues into the national media,” Guillaume Pitron, independent journalist and commodities specialist, told RSF.

The few journalists who investigate environmental issues in China are serious too few resources and run the risk censored or labeled as “traitors” and thrown into prison by the Party, as it is anyone who exposes facts that embarrass the country’s political and business leaders. There are even worse possibilities. In 2018, Lu Guang, a World Press Photo award-winning photojournalist, launched had exposed the ravages of China’s mining industry, suddenly disappeared. China is considered the world’s largest jailer of journalists and ranks 172nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index. The government is systematically taking action against independent media.

Although Russia (ranked 162nd out of 180 countries in the RSF index) is one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels and mining products. So are its environmental reporters constantly threatened with arrest or violencelike all Russian journalists. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s few independent media outlets have been banned or blocked. This also includes the environmental news site Kedrthat was forced to close after being designated a ‘foreign agent’ by the authorities. The government has also blocked all access to official databases on the environment and pollution.

In India (ranked 159th in the Index), one of the world’s largest producers of coal, mining and forestry products, environmental issues are among the most dangerous topics to address. Of the 28 journalists killed in India in the last decade, almost half investigated stories related to the environment, including the country’s “sand mafia,” an organized crime network that illegally mines sand for the construction industry.

As for the world’s top fossil fuel producers, almost all of them are among the countries that most persecute journalism. This is particularly the case for the Persian Gulf countries – Saudi Arabia (166th), the United Arab Emirates (160th), Iraq (169th), Iran (176th) and Kuwait (131st) – which alone have more than control a quarter of the world’s population. oil supply. The impact of burning fossil fuels on the climate is known, but the impact of their extraction is much less. Yet it is huge: methane leaks associated with oil, gas and coal extraction alone represent 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, these could be possible are easily avoided if they are discovered and reported to authorities, as some investigative journalists doDespite frequent restrictions about media access.

The relative rarity of attacks on journalists in many regions where natural resources are intensively exploited does not necessarily mean that journalists are safer in those regions. Rather, it is due to the fact that journalistic reporting is limited or non-existent, which in turn is due to access restrictions, a lack of resources for investigative reporting or self-censorship in the media.

RSF defends environmental journalism

RSF has on several occasions in recent years drawn attention to the plight of environmental journalists around the world. In 2022, the Swedish chapter of RSF published a report entitled Empty places in the Barents region about the difficulties journalists face reporting on environmental issues in the Barents Sea, a fossil fuel-rich region north of Norway and western Russia, where they are often harassed and attacked by polluting companies. In 2023, an RSF report titled Scorched lands of journalism in the Amazon examined the threats and intimidation that journalists reporting on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are subjected to by regional business interests. RSF also reported on the investigation into the murders of Dom Philips and Bruno Pereira.