World Press Freedom Index

World Press Freedom Index

Subject: Governance

Section: Reports and indices

Context:

India’s ranking in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 150 out of 180 countries, according to the latest report released by the global media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In last year’s report, India was ranked 142. The top three positions for countries with the highest press freedom were taken by the Nordic trio of Norway (a score of 92.65), Denmark (90.27) and Sweden (88.84).

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).
• RSF is an international NGO whose self-proclaimed aim is to defend and promote media freedom. Headquartered in Paris, it has consultative status with the United Nations
• It is a qualitative analysis combined with quantitative data on abuses and acts of violence against journalists during the period evaluated.
•  The RSF defines press freedom as “the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety
• 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.