Why is it advised to freeze meat before eating as opposed to eating it fresh?
What kind of meat is it, maybe pork? 

There are many kinds of pathogens in meat. One type are bacteria. They don't die from cold temperatures (not even freezing), but die from high heat. Unfortunately, heating the meat throughout so it's hot enough to kill all bacteria will turn it into a shoesole. So, meat is cooked to slightly lower temperatures which are capable of killing most, but not all bacteria. And the surface of the meat comes into contact with the pan, so it gets much hotter than the inside. Because the surface is where the bacteria are (they came onto the meat after it was butchered), they die in the hot pan. 

But there are other pathogens beside bacteria. One class are parasites. They also die from high heat. But they don't sit on the surface of the meat, they were living inside the tissue of the animal before it was slaughtered. So, if you bring a contaminated steak to 55 Celsius internal temperature, but accidentally stick your thermometer in a too thin part of the meat - or don't use a thermometer and hope that you can judge meat doneness by feel - it can happen that a parasite snuggled in the thickest part survives. And some domestic animal parasites can also use the human as a host, causing all kinds of ugly health problems. A prime examples would be trichinosis, a disease caused by a pig parasite. 

Parasites are rather rare in industrial food production, because there are ways to heal them in the living animal. You almost never get into contact with them, while each piece of meat you buy is teeming with disease-causing bacteria. So parasites are not in the spotlight of food safety, the typical rules are created to protect against bacteria. Given the lack of trichinosis epidemics lately, it seems to work. 

But if there is a high chance that you get contaminated meat, you can consider freezing the meat. Unlike bacteria, parasites die when frozen solid, and stop being a danger to you. 

I haven't heard of such a wave of advice in the media, it could be that there was a single high-profile case of parasite illness in your country, or that there has been a slowly growing epidemic. Or also that there always has been some danger due to the way animals are typically held (your description of eating right away reminds me of a family slaughtering pigs they raised themselves, in which case there is no vet inspecting the meat), but that consumer rights groups have started a media campaign to bring the situation into public attention. 

Beside pork, there is high parasite risk in wild hunted game, as well as many kinds of sea food. Sheep can also carry some, but they are more likely to be in the organ meat, not the muscle (e.g. liver flukes). AFAIK, beef and chicken are not typical hosts to dangerous parasites. Update: As Mischa Arefiev points out, there is a type of tapeworm which lives in beef. Freezing is effective against it too.