News Item

Two continents, two political systems — and two attempts to change how online media gets regulated | Nieman Journalism Lab

According to this year’s index from Reporters Without Borders, the United Kingdom ranks No. 33 in the world when it comes to press freedom. Call it a low B on a letter-grade scale: well behind those curve-blowing Scandinavians, of course, but in the same ballpark as France or Spain.

Nigeria, meanwhile, comes in at No. 120, the rough equivalent of a D+. You aren’t North Korea or Saudi Arabia, sure, but you’re still at the back of the class.

You’ll find similar results on the Democracy Index: the U.K. at No. 16 (“Full Democracy”), Nigeria at No. 110 (the lowest-ranking “Hybrid Regime,” one slot away from “Authoritarian”).

But these two countries, as different as they can be, are facing similar sets of questions about whether — and if yes, how and how much — to regulate online content. And they both seem to be coming down on the side of regulation, albeit it in different ways.

[…]

Source: Two continents, two political systems — and two attempts to change how online media gets regulated | Nieman Journalism Lab