World Press Freedom day is on Sunday – and the refrain, from the World Association of Newspapers to the International Press Institute, is subtly different this year. Of course the 30 journalists who’ve died trying to tell a story so far in 2015 matter. Their freedom stands on a cutting edge. Of course Charlie Hebdo scars us all. But don’t forget “soft censorship”, the tangles and tribulations that lie just out of sight.
Observe the way that Mexico and Bulgaria dangle journalism at the end of a piece of advertising string that they alone hold. Scratch your head over the unexplained subsidies for the press that Spanish regions control. Wonder how Jordan can call itself free when it licenses the people who must hold it to account? Reflect on the majesty of Malaysian democracy, where real freedom has to exist in code at the foot of page two. The list is long and depressing: a hard truth in a hard, cold world.