The Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index ranks the performance of 180 countries according to a range of criteria that include media pluralism and independence, respect for the safety and freedom of journalists, and the legislative, institutional and infrastructural environment in which the media operate.
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Reporters sans frontières,
2023)
Economic context component of Press Freedom Index. Questions asked for the economic context component aim to evaluate: - economic constraints linked to governmental policies (including the difficulty of creating a news media outlet, favouritism in the allocation of state subsidies, and corruption); - economic constraints linked to non-state actors (advertisers and commercial partners); - economic constraints linked to media owners seeking to promote or defend their business interests. A subsidiary score ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator. All of the subsidiary scores contribute equally to the global score. And within each indicator, all the questions and subquestions have equal weight.
More about this variableLegal context component of Press Freedom Index. Questions asked for the legal context component concern the legislative and regulatory environment for journalists, in particular: - the degree to which journalists and media are free to work without censorship or judicial sanctions, or excessive restrictions on their freedom of expression; - the ability to access information without discrimination between journalists, and the ability to protect sources; - the presence or absence of impunity for those responsible for acts of violence against journalists. A subsidiary score ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator. All of the subsidiary scores contribute equally to the global score. And within each indicator, all the questions and subquestions have equal weight.
More about this variablePolitical context component of Press Freedom Index. Questions asked for political context component aim to evaluate: - the degree of support and respect for media autonomy vis-à-vis political pressure from the state or from other political actors; - the level of acceptance of a variety of journalistic approaches satisfying professional standards, including politically aligned approaches and independent approaches; - the degree of support for the media in their role of holding politicians and government to account in the public interest. A subsidiary score ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator. All of the subsidiary scores contribute equally to the global score. And within each indicator, all the questions and subquestions have equal weight.
More about this variablePress Freedom Index, using the methodology of the 2022 report. The Press Freedom Index measures the amount of freedom journalists, and the media have in each country, and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom is respected. It does not take account of all human rights violations, only those that affect press freedom. Neither is it an indicator of the quality of a country's media. Note: Higher scores indicate that country has more press freedom.
More about this variableThe Press Freedom Index was calculated using the methodology used in RSF 2002-2012 reports. The Press Freedom Index measures the amount of freedom journalists, and the media have in each country, and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom is respected. It does not take account of all human rights violations, only those that affect press freedom. Neither is it an indicator of the quality of a country's media. Note: Press Freedom Index for 2002-2012 is reversely ordered, which means countries with less press freedom got higher scores. Except for 2012, the index ranges between 0 (total press freedom) and 100 (no press freedom). However, for the 2012 data release, RSF changed the scale so that negative values could be assigned to countries with more press freedom. We have decided to leave the data as is.
More about this variablePress Freedom Index, calculated with the methodology used in RSF 2013-2021 reports. The Press Freedom Index measures the amount of freedom journalists, and the media have in each country and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom is respected. It does not take account of all human rights violations, only those that affect press freedom. Neither is it an indicator of the quality of a country's media. Note: Higher scores indicate that country has more press freedom.
More about this variableSociocultural context component of Press Freedom Index. Questions asked for sociocultural context component aim to evaluate: - social constraints resulting from denigration and attacks on the press based on such issues as gender, class, ethnicity and religion; - cultural constraints, including pressure on journalists to not question certain bastions of power or influence or not cover certain issues because it would run counter to the prevailing culture in the country or territory. A subsidiary score ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator. All of the subsidiary scores contribute equally to the global score. And within each indicator, all the questions and subquestions have equal weight.
More about this variableThe questions asked for this component concern journalists’ safety. For this purpose, press freedom is defined as the ability to identify, gather and disseminate news and information in accordance with journalistic methods and ethics, without unnecessary risk of: - bodily harm (including murder, violence, arrest, detention and abduction); - psychological or emotional distress that could result from intimidation, coercion, harassment, surveillance, doxing (publication of personal information with malicious intent), degrading or hateful speech, smears and other threats targeting journalists or their loved-ones; - professional harm resulting from, for example, the loss of one’s job, the confiscation or professional equipment, or the ransacking of installations. A subsidiary score ranging from 0 to 100 is calculated for each indicator. All of the subsidiary scores contribute equally to the global score. And within each indicator, all the questions and subquestions have equal weight.
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