Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 67th in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, slipping nine places compared to last year.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), this year’s edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories, “highlights the disastrous effects of news and information chaos – the effects of a globalised and unregulated online information space that encourages fake news and propaganda.”

Serbia is the lowest ranking country of all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, although it climbed 14 places compared to the 2021 report and is now 79th in the category of problematic countries.

BiH, Slovenia (54th place), North Macedonia (57th place) and Montenegro (63rd place) are in the same category. Croatia ranked 48th and is in the “satisfactory” category.

“Within democratic societies, divisions are growing as a result of the spread of opinion media following the “Fox News model” and the spread of disinformation circuits that are amplified by the way social media functions. At the international level, democracies are being weakened by the asymmetry between open societies and despotic regimes that control their media and online platforms while waging propaganda wars against democracies,” RSF said, adding that “polarisation on these two levels is fuelling increased tension.”