Law: it's legal to report accurate news even if it damages pub. figures' reput.

QoG code: aii_q54

Sub-score (0-100). Question no. 54. In law, it is legal to report accurate news even if it damages the reputation of a public figure.

A 100 score is earned where all the following conditions are met:
1) it is legal to report accurate information on public figures regardless of the damage to their reputations,
2) journalists can only be convicted if malice is proved (a story was published even though the journalist knew it was false or didn't try to verify it).

Note: Public figures include anyone in a position of responsibility in the government or civil service; political leaders; and leaders of civil society organizations, religious groups, trade unions, or large businesses.

A 0 score is earned where no such law exists, or a law exists but it doesn't include all the conditions described in 100. A 0 score is also earned where the law establishes the presumption of bad faith for all comments deemed defamatory and/or the burden of proof falls to journalists.

Type of variable
Continuous
Downloaded by QoG on
2025-09-25
Last updated by source
2024-05-28

Categories

Media
Details of this variable in our compilation datasets
Dataset No. Countries
Standard time-series 53
Dataset Available for years
Standard time-series 2013-2017

Country coverage

Click here to see the full list of countries
  • Algeria
  • Angola
  • Benin
  • Botswana
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Cameroon
  • Cape Verde
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Comoros
  • Congo
  • Congo, Democratic Republic
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Djibouti
  • Egypt
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Eswatini (former Swaziland)
  • Ethiopia (1993-)
  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Morocco
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Year coverage

This variable has information from 2013 to 2017.