WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX

Subject: International Reports

Context: Recently, the Reporters without Borders (RSF) has released the 2021 edition of World Press Freedom Index.

Concept:

It ranks 180 countries, topped by Norway followed by Finland and Denmark, while Eritrea is at the bottom.
China is ranked 177, and is only above North Korea at 179 and Turkmenistan at 178.
In the South Asian neighbourhood, Nepal is at 106, Sri Lanka at 127, Myanmar (before the coup) at 140, Pakistan at 145 and Bangladesh at 152.
The report said that Asia Pacific’s authoritarian regimes have used the Covid-19 pandemic to perfect their methods of totalitarian control of information.
India has not slipped further on the World Press Freedom Index 2021.
India is ranked 142 after it had consistently slid down from 133 in 2016.

About World Press Freedom Index

It is an annual report published every year since 2002 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
It is a qualitative analysis combined with quantitative data on abuses and acts of violence against journalists during the period evaluated.
The countries have been given scores ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 being the best possible score and 100 the worst, ever since the 2013 index.
The Index ranks 180 countries and regions according to the level of freedom available to journalists.
It does not rank public policies even if governments obviously have a major impact on their country’s ranking.