A FREE and diverse media is a crucial part of democratic society. This was marked yesterday on “World Media Freedom Day”, with the United Nations saying it was an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is right to stress that “No democracy is complete without access to transparent and reliable information. It is the cornerstone for building fair and impartial institutions, holding leaders accountable and speaking truth to power.” However a free and fair media is under attack.

According to Reporters Without Borders, less than 10% of the world’s population lives in countries where journalists enjoy a favourable environment and are able to practice their profession freely and independently. Around 74% of the world’s population lives in a country where the press freedom situation is regarded as difficult or very serious, where the freedom to inform is heavily suppressed.

They report that this is the case not only in China, Russia and Saudi Arabia but also in democracies such as Turkey, Mexico and India. If you include countries where the situation is regarded as problematic, the figure rises to 91%.

The 2019 World Press Freedom Index “shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear. The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media”.

According to the index, it is northern European countries that come out best. Norway tops the respected listing for the third year in a row, followed by Finland and Sweden. But developments in highly ranking countries still give cause for concern.

In recent weeks a storm of media protest has erupted over the treatment of Austrian news anchor Armin Wolf by the government’s junior coalition Freedom Party (FPO) which has threatened him with “consequences” for asking tough questions. The populist right-wing FPO have targeted Wolf, who is a world-class journalist and one of Europe’s most respected broadcasters for asking tough questions about their use of racist images. The storm follows hot on the heels of the FPO deputy mayor of Braunau publishing racist poetry describing migrants as rats. Meanwhile, the FPO vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who was involved with neo-Nazis as a youth, has had to explain why party colleagues were donors to the same extremist “indentitarian” organisation supported by the murderous Christchurch terrorist.

I have the good fortune to have been a colleague of Armin Wolf when we worked together as journalists at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. I have also experienced his tough questioning as a political guest on the main evening “Zeit im Bild” news. He is a model journalist who in the finest media tradition asks searching questions of all interviewees.

No wonder that Austria’s talented young chancellor Sebastian Kurz knows he has a problem with his junior coalition partners, their attacks on the media and the growing list of examples of extremist behaviour. This is more than just a presentational problem at home, it is now an international news story and an emerging theme that won’t go away.

It is, however, not just a problem in Austria. Right-wing populists have also been targeting public service broadcasters in Germany.

There it is the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) that has sought to have TV journalist Georg Restle removed for asking difficult questions. The situation there is the same: freedom of the press for the populist right means the freedom to agree with them, not to ask difficult questions.

In our social media age, unfairly attacking and threatening journalists is sadly becoming a daily occurrence. Here in Scotland we are not immune to that, and all journalists I know will confirm that they have been at the receiving end of dogs abuse, often from anonymous keyboard warriors.

This week, an up-and-coming young journalist illustrated her shocking experiences on Twitter involving a torrent of abuse simply for doing her job properly, in seeking to get balanced views for a report she was doing. No one should be treated that way. There is no excuse. There is also no justification with “whataboutery”.

World Media Freedom Day 2019 is a helpful reminder for all democrats at home and abroad that we must support media freedom, protect free journalism and stand up for journalists, whether we agree with their questions or not.