The readers of the opinion pages of the daily newspapers in recent times could be forgiven for forming the impression that the country’s recent fall in the World Press Freedom ranking is as a result of direct actions taken by the Jamaican State. They’ve been led to believe so.

Indeed, what appears to be a covert campaign has been waged to this effect. The campaign has been given life by conjecture from the likes of the good Catholic deacon and environmentalist Peter Espeut. In his opinion piece for The Gleaner dated May 9, 2025 titled ‘Declining Freedom of the Press’, Espeut appeared to invite the public to question the editorial independence of certain media houses. He also came dangerously close to suggesting collusion between the State and private media. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the courage to directly name the media houses he believes we should question. Thankfully, the existence of a strong and free press in Jamaica allows the privilege, if not right, of response.

Jamaicans should know that the compilation of the country’s press freedom ranking is not an act of purely independent assessment or impartial, international monitoring. To the contrary, Jamaica’s press freedom ranking is directly informed by the opinions and influence local journalists, practising and retired, bring to bear on a lengthy questionnaire they are asked to complete by Reporters Without Borders. No doubt the organisation also makes its own observations, but on the whole, the rankings are largely a product of local feedback. It seems to me that before we pontificate, we should question the rigour of the methodology and exactly how the respondents are chosen for the survey. Do we have a balance of ideology, view point, demographics, etc? Or is the survey confined to a select group with a specific worldview?

Full disclosure demands that I point out that I was one of the respondents in the most recent questionnaire. I filled it out in October of last year to inform this May’s publication. I also have no great difficulty telling you that I pointed to the repeated, orchestrated, and sustained attacks on Nationwide News Network (NNN) waged by the leadership of a particular political party and its operatives. The insidious lie that NNN and its reporters have been paid by the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to damage the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) required attention. I also drew to the attention of Reporters Without Borders the vicious smear campaign that was recently launched against my colleagues at The Gleaner, which suggested they were part of an orchestrated campaign to bring down the Government. The assertions in both examples are equally untrue and equally damaging to press freedom.

In that sense, the declining ranking is not the sole province of the State, or perhaps more specifically the executive, but the result of the hostility of the two main political tribes now jostling for power in the run-up to a general election. Ask yourself, why would anyone suggest the State is solely at fault here? What is his/her motivation?

I get it. There is a philosophical school of thought in this country that is dead set on telling our people they should distrust Government and politicians are inherently bad. Undoubtedly, some of them are. But we corrupt the system expected to deliver for the masses of our people when we constantly and unnecessarily sow seeds of cynicism into the public discourse.

We do a disservice to the Jamaican people when we pretend, intentionally or otherwise, that the press freedom ranking is a wholly independent assessment that has evaluated the local landscape and determined that somehow the Government is repressing free media and discourse. It’s just not true. In fact, if one should broaden the definition of the press to include the explosion of online platforms and so-called citizen journalists, our press and media landscape is perhaps the freest it’s been in decades. It is true that legacy media are struggling to find ways of remaining relevant in this environment and to compete as financially viable outlets that are losing eyeballs to those who present less varnished information in the mediated communities they occupy online. None of that suggests a press under attack — it may suggest an evolving press environment, but not a press under attack, and certainly not from the State.

I do not for a second discount the work that Reporters Without Borders has done. It’s important, necessary work. But we as Jamaicans live here. We know the truth. Can anyone of us credibly say that beyond the incidents of political hysteria leading up to campaigns and the regrettable, but isolated, incidents of violence against journalists and media houses that freedom of the press in Jamaica is being eroded or undermined? I challenge anyone to honestly say so.

To be sure, none of that is to say there is no room for improvement. Of course there is. I can think of several areas that require attention. The constitution should be amended to codify freedom of the press as a distinct right from freedom of expression. The Access to Information Act requires overhauling. It is too often ineffective in allowing journalists to get at the truth and facts of a matter. I would also like to see much more frequent opportunities for structured engagement between the press and high-ranking officials, such as the prime minister, chief of defence staff, the commissioner of police, and the chief justice, to name a few. On those things, we should absolutely press the Government for more action.

Press freedom is important. It is one of our most cherished freedoms as a still fledgling democracy. We cannot hope to secure for ourselves and our progeny the fortunes of liberty without a free press. We ought to defend it, but that defence need not be at the expense of the truth.

Ricardo Brooks is a journalist at Nationwide News Network.