 Law No. 2018-31 of 16 May 2018 amending and supplementing Law No. 2012-34 of 7 June 2012 on the composition, terms of reference, organization and operational procedures of the CSC. In addition to adapting the legal and institutional framework to the context of the TDT, it corrects certain deficiencies raised by the CSC; this particularly has to do with the inability of this body to act where slippages occur on the part of a media outfit and the fact that it was impossible to ensure the interruption of a live broadcast likely to disturb the peace and social order. The latter reform has been criticized by certain communications practitioners who fear that officials of the CSC would abuse it. However, this concern is dispelled when one is aware that a case of abuse of power can be made before the Council of State to challenge decisions of CSC. 84. Before these two (2) reforms, Niger passed Law No. 2017-28 of 3 May 2017 on the protection of personal data in 2017. Finally, in 2019, Law No. 2019-33 of 3 July 2019 on the crackdown on cybercrime was passed. 85. At the legal and institutional levels, the High Communications Council (CSC), the independent administrative authority which ensures the effectiveness of press freedom, saw the renewal of the term of its members on 10 April 2018 and a review of its remit with Law No. 201831 of 16 May 2018 amending Law No. 2012-34 of 7 June 2012 and Law No. 2018-23 of 27 April 2018 on electronic communications. Under Article 157 of the Constitution of 25 November 2010, the main mission of the High Communications Council is to ensure the freedom and independence of the means of audio-visual communication, print media and electronic media in accordance with the law. 86. The CSC distributed the 2016-2017 media assistance fund on 29 November 2018. That is how following the criteria set by the institution, 35 private media outfits in Niger (newspapers and radio and television stations) received FCFA 290,500,000 – FCFA 88 million for 2016 and two hundred and two million five hundred thousand (FCFA 202,500,000) for 2017. This fund aims at strengthening the technical, material and editorial capacity of private media outfits in order to help with the establishment of real media enterprises in Niger. With the recent reforms, this fund will no longer be paid in cash to the media outfits, but would rather be used to fund capacity strengthening training programmes for journalists. 87. On the status of press freedom, it should be noted that according to the Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) 2019 world rankings on press freedom, Niger placed 66th out of 180 countries. In 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013, it placed 63rd, 61st, 52nd, 47th, 48th and 43rd respectively. 88. These figures do not in any way reflect a decline in press freedom in Niger. RSF based its work on the closure of some media outfits, but these involved mere administrative and tax measures aimed at preventing possible public order disturbances and asserting the rights of the State. The closures were only motivated by the need to put an end to messages of hate, revolt and incitement to violence carried by these media outfits as well as their lack of taxpayer compliance. They were carried out in accordance with the law to maintain peace and public order and to bring them back to order by ensuring that they respect their ethics and the laws of the land. 89. It is important to note that since the passage of the law on the decriminalization of press offences, no journalist has been detained for offences committed via the media (defamation and insults). It should be recalled that this law does not forbid the arrest of journalists who commit common law offences, hence the confusion on the part of some people who were quick to criticize when a journalist was arrested, no matter the reason. 29