Exploring global press freedom: A look at journalism across nations

Journalism. Every year since 2002, the association Reporters Without Borders compiles an index where they list out the levels of press freedom throughout the world. There are five levels which I chose to represent with the following colors. Countries where press is entirely free in green. Countries where press is free but has slight issues and small situations that do not allow a perfect rating in yellow. Countries where press freedom is at risk due to more serious issues in orange, countries where there is very, very little press freedom in red, and countries where there is pretty much zero press freedom in black. I used purple on the thumbnail for contrast purposes, but here it's black. However, it's important to note two things the index makes sure to point out. This isn't a ranking of country government attitudes towards the press. Some countries might not have press freedom because of the way outlets are owned or because of crime, and it also isn't a measure of the quality of journalism in each country. Now, I also don't know if this index is accurate. When you look at the map, you think, okay, yeah, those make sense, but maybe that's because of the stereotypes we associate with each country. There's no reason to doubt it. I think the index seems to be made by this association, which is made up of journalists themselves. And they seem to base their ratings with specific examples of the issues in each country, with a country score that is calculated with specific formulas, based on questions in various categories. But remember to double check sources and remember to always have critical thinking about information, especially online and even here, and always find more than one reliable source to confirm it before taking it as accurate. With that out of the way, let's get started. The reason why many of you probably clicked on the video is to get a general idea of press freedom throughout the world, since that's what's on the thumbnail. So let's start with precisely that. An overview of the entire world map color-coded according to each country's press freedom. We immediately see something somewhat concerning, which is a dominance of red throughout the world, which then added to the black means there are a lot of countries in which the press is not free. In fact, according to the index, 73% of the 180 countries ranked by the organization have journalists completely or partly blocked from free reporting. This means that press freedom is blocked or seriously impeded in 70 countries and constrained in 59 others. So, 73 countries are in the black or red and 59 are in the orange. And the remaining ones divide themselves in 37 in the yellow and 11 in the green. They had a chart on the index website, which I'll link in the description, that allows us to better understand this division. Pie charts are the best and pie as well. We can see here that only 6.9% of countries are in a good situation, where press freedom is essentially total and they're depicted in green. 19.8% are in the yellow, with a good situation still but facing slight issues. The largest percentage of countries are in the orange, with a problematic situation. 28% are in the red, in a difficult and seriously impeded situation, while 11.8% are in the black, with a very serious and blocked press freedom situation. Let's go region by region for a better look. In North America, there's no green to be seen. Canada is in the yellow, as are the United States. However, there's a big difference. Canada ranks number 14 on the worldwide list and doesn't make it into the entirely free ranking by only around 4 points. They have 15.25, while the first to make it in the top category has 11.91. The rankings seem to be 0 to 100 with a lower value equaling more press freedom, while the US ranked number 44 with 23.93 points and Mexico is in red at 143 with 46.7 points. And this negative trend continues in Central America and the Caribbean, with most being in the orange or yellow. But there are three we need to set apart. First, Cuba stands out for bad reasons, ranking 171st with 63.94 points, the only American country in the black. However, on the bright side, Costa Rica has an exceptional result, being the fifth country in the world in which the press is most free, with Jamaica following at number 7. A rare sight. When most of these freedom rankings are made, usually Europe dominates the top results, and it's good to see that in this case, that doesn't happen as much. South America seems terrible when it comes to press freedom, according to this. The best results are in Suriname and Uruguay, who despite being in the yellow, make it into the top 20 on the list. So overall, great results for these two, ahead of countries like Luxembourg, Australia, France, or the United Kingdom. But the rest of South America doesn't do so good, being in orange and red. Venezuela Venezuela is the worst at 148 worldwide, followed by Colombia at 134, Brazil at 111, and Bolivia at 110. Colombia is a good example to use because of the reason presented for the lack of press freedom. A lot of times we'll see this and instantly think the reason is the type of political regime that exists in that country or the public policies put in place. But that isn't always the case, and Colombia is an example of that, a place where, according to the index, press freedom is limited by criminal groups who repress investigations against them and thus damage press freedom. The rest of South America is in the orange, with Guyana and Chile being the only two remotely close to making it into the yellow. They have a score of 25.6 and 27.8 respectively, while the first country to make it into the yellow category is Romania with 24.9. Moving to Europe, this is the region in which press freedom results are overall better. Out the 12 countries where press freedom is considered entirely free, 9 of them are in Europe. They are, starting with the most free, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, and Ireland, with Costa Rica and Jamaica, along with New Zealand, being the non-European exceptions at the top of the ranking. Iceland is typically with the Nordic countries at the top of these rankings, and it started as that. In 2014, they were ranked number 8. But over the past decade, the situation has been slightly worsening, and now it's seen is free with some problems being depicted in yellow and ranking only number 16 worldwide. Mostly due to the fact that recently two major newspapers were acquired by two major fishing and industrial companies creating a potential problem of conflict of interest. The rest of Western Europe is in the yellow, the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany. In France for instance the issue seems to be the concentration of media outlets in the hands of a few industrialists. another example where the government isn't at fault. Just like in Italy, which has a similar situation to Colombia, and the state actually has to award journalists police protection. But don't get this wrong. The top countries in which the press is the most free also have some issues. In Portugal, for instance, the index points out the financial issues that many outlets face, not being able to sustain themselves, and therefore opening up the possibility for ownership concentration of the same kind there apparently is in France. As we travel east in Europe, the colors start to get more into the orange. In Poland, the index says that public media have been transformed into state media, damaging freedom. Ukraine has slightly improved over the past year, but still sees a concentration of media outlets in the hands of a few rich people. In Hungary, business allies of the government are accused of buying out media outlets that oppose their agenda. Almost all of the Balkans are in the orange as well, and Eastern Europe in general is very concerning when it comes to this. Only Romania and the nations are considered free, even if in the yellow. Bulgaria is, along with Belarus, the only two European countries with a red ranking. We always end with Oceania, so let's not this time and skip over to it right now before getting to Asia and Africa. The best is New Zealand, who ranks number 8 worldwide. However, Australia also does pretty good, being in number 25. Papua New Guinea is 47th and Timor-Leste at 71st. New Zealand has a great result, but the index points to a risk of damaging good journalism due to the media groups wanting to maximize profit at that expense although they say this isn't what they're covering in the index while in australia they state the biggest issue is that its constitutional law contains no press freedom guarantees moving on to asia it's clearly the continent in which press freedom is most limited from what i can understand only two countries are in the yellow south korea and taiwan which have the best results with all the others being mostly in the red or even in the black, representing total blocking of press freedom. It seems only 10 countries make it into the orange, being considered free press states, but with some concerning issues or limitations. Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Palestine. Japan's issue, for instance, seems to be a discrimination against freelancers and foreign reporters, while 11 countries are in black. China, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. From the ones in the red, Turkey makes it almost into the black, being ranked at 153rd due to the rise of arrests and prosecutions of journalists. India is, according to the index, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to work in, while Russia ranks at 150 due to a lot of state pressure onto independent media. And finally, Africa. Having six countries in the black. Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Egypt, Libya, and Equatorial Guinea. Only six countries are in the yellow too, with Namibia and Cape Verde being the most free when it comes to their press. I counted 15 in the orange being partly free, but facing significant issues, and the rest are in the red. If you go to the actual index website, you can click on the interactive map and find out more about the issues that each country faces when it comes to their press freedom. If you want a more to the point view on this, the top 10 countries in the world where the press is most free are Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Jamaica, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland. While the 10 countries where, according to this index, press freedom is least present or even non-existent are Eritrea, Korea, Turkmenistan, China, Jebu, Vietnam, Iran, Syria, Laos, and Cuba. When it comes to the biggest improvements or biggest falls in freedom. 42 countries had no changes in their rankings since last year. 65 improved their position, while 73 are ranked in worse manner than they were. So, I think we can come to the conclusion that, in general, press freedom would have slightly declined over the past year. When it comes to the ones who changed positions, Malaysia was the country which evolved worst from 2020 to 2021, falling 18 positions. Comoros, El Salvador, Kosovo, Mauritius, Belarus in Lebanon also fell a lot, while Burundi, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Mali, Timor-Leste, Maldives and Malawi were the ones who improved more in terms of how many slots they moved up on the worldwide list. Although we need to keep in mind, sometimes countries might change their positions in terms of which number they occupy on the list, even if their own score doesn't change. So if number 50 stays the same, but number 49 becomes less free, then number 50 will consequently move up. If we want a real notion of changes, we have to look at the change in score and not the change in position. Iran, Malaysia, Laos, Yemen, Vietnam and Germany are amongst the ones who got worse scores compared to last year, while Burundi, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Tonga are among the ones who most improved. But for instance, Sudan improved its score and did not change its position and Vietnam worsened its score and also remained at 175 in both years due to other countries' changes. Regionally, North America seems to be gaining more press freedom as both the US and Canada moved up in the ranking. Latin America is the opposite in its majority, with most countries being in decline when it comes to this. Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East sort of maintain their situation, but according to the index, it's not a good one. And while Europe continues to be the most favorable continent for press freedom, some countries are worsening their status. Just like Hungary and Poland, despite the European Union's efforts to establish legal mechanisms that protect freedom in the press. And so that is, according to the Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Without Borders, the state of press freedom worldwide in 2021. I couldn't specify the reasoning and justifications behind each country's ranking and I also didn't specify a lot the way that the ranking is made according to the association that made the index. It would take a very long time and the ranking explanation would probably be incredibly boring, so I think it was better to present a generalized overview of the entire world, with some key pieces of information about certain countries and regions in general, which essentially serve as examples for many, if not most, of the other ones, defining the main reasons why in some countries press freedom is limited. But if you are interested in the details of each country and the calculating of the ranking, just go to the Reporters Without Borders website and you can find all of those details there. Thanks so much for watching this video. Subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.