Politics

Mapped: The State of Press Freedom Around the World

Published

3 years ago

May 1, 2020

Nick Routley

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Mapped: The State of Press Freedom Around the World

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In many Western countries, it’s easy to take press freedom for granted.

Instances of fake news, clickbait, and hyper-partisan reporting are points of consternation in the modern media landscape, and can sometimes overshadow the greater good that unrestricted journalism provides to society.

Of course, the ability to do that important work can vary significantly around the world. Being an investigative journalist in Sweden comes with a very different set of circumstances and considerations than doing the same thing in a country such as Saudi Arabia or Venezuela.

Today’s map highlights the results of the 2020 Global Press Freedom Index, produced by Reporters Without Borders. The report looks at press freedom in 180 countries and territories.

A Profession Not Without Its Risks

Today, nearly 75% of countries are in categories that the report describes as problematic, difficult, and very serious.

While these negative forces often come in the form of censorship and intimidation, journalism can be a risky profession in some of the more restrictive countries. One example is Mexico, where nearly 60 journalists were killed as a direct result of their reporting over the last decade.

journalists killed around the world

There is good news though: the number of journalists killed last year was the lowest since the report began in 2002.

Even better, press freedom scores increased around the world in the 2020 report.

Press Freedom: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Here are the scores for all 180 countries and territories covered in the report, sorted by 2020 ranking and score:

Rank (2020)	Country or Region	Score (2020)	Prev. Rank (2019)	Change in Rank
#1	🇳🇴 Norway	7.84	1	0
#2	🇫🇮 Finland	7.93	2	0
#3	🇩🇰 Denmark	8.13	5	2
#4	🇸🇪 Sweden	9.25	3	-1
#5	🇳🇱 Netherlands	9.96	4	-1
#6	🇯🇲 Jamaica	10.51	8	2
#7	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	10.53	10	3
#8	🇨🇭 Switzerland	10.62	6	-2
#9	🇳🇿 New Zealand	10.69	7	-2
#10	🇵🇹 Portugal	11.83	12	2
#11	Germany	12.16	13	2
#12	Belgium	12.57	9	-3
#13	Ireland	12.60	15	2
#14	Estonia	12.61	11	-3
#15	Iceland	15.12	14	-1
#16	Canada	15.29	18	2
#17	Luxembourg	15.46	17	0
#18	Austria	15.78	16	-2
#19	Uruguay	15.79	19	0
#20	Suriname	17.50	20	0
#21	Samoa	18.25	22	1
#22	Latvia	18.56	24	2
#23	Namibia	19.25	23	0
#24	Liechtenstein	19.52	26	2
#25	Cape Verde	20.15	25	0
#26	Australia	20.21	21	-5
#27	Cyprus	20.45	28	1
#28	Lithuania	21.19	30	2
#29	Spain	22.16	29	0
#30	Ghana	22.26	27	-3
#31	South Africa	22.41	31	0
#32	Slovenia	22.64	34	2
#33	Slovakia	22.67	35	2
#34	France	22.92	32	-2
#35	United Kingdom	22.93	33	-2
#36	Trinidad and Tobago	23.22	39	3
#37	Andorra	23.23	37	0
#38	Burkina Faso	23.47	36	-2
#39	Botswana	23.56	44	5
#40	Czech Republic	23.57	40	0
#41	Italy	23.69	43	2
#42	South Korea	23.70	41	-1
#43	Taiwan	23.76	42	-1
#44	OECS	23.78	50	6
#45	United States	23.85	48	3
#46	Papua New Guinea	23.93	38	-8
#47	Senegal	23.99	49	2
#48	Romania	25.91	47	-1
#49	Guyana	26.63	51	2
#50	Tonga	27.27	45	-5
#51	Chile	27.31	46	-5
#52	Fiji	27.41	52	0
#53	Belize	27.50	53	0
#54	Madagascar	27.68	54	0
#55	Dominican Republic	27.90	55	0
#56	Mauritius	28.00	58	2
#57	Niger	28.25	66	9
#58	Bosnia and Herzegovina	28.51	63	5
#59	Croatia	28.51	64	5
#60	Georgia	28.59	60	0
#61	Armenia	28.60	61	0
#62	Poland	28.65	59	-3
#63	Seychelles	28.66	69	6
#64	Argentina	28.78	57	-7
#65	Greece	28.80	65	0
#66	Japan	28.86	67	1
#67	Bhutan	28.90	80	13
#68	Ivory Coast	28.94	71	3
#69	Malawi	29.32	68	-1
#70	Kosovo	29.33	75	5
#71	Togo	29.33	76	5
#72	Tunisia	29.45	72	0
#73	Mongolia	29.61	70	-3
#74	El Salvador	29.70	81	7
#75	Comoros	29.77	56	-19
#76	Panama	29.78	79	3
#77	Cyprus North	29.79	74	-3
#78	East Timor	29.90	84	6
#79	Maldives	29.93	98	19
#80	Hong Kong	30.01	73	-7
#81	Malta	30.16	77	-4
#82	Kyrgyzstan	30.19	83	1
#83	Haiti	30.20	62	-21
#84	Albania	30.25	82	-2
#85	Sierra Leone	30.28	86	1
#86	Lesotho	30.45	78	-8
#87	Gambia	30.62	92	5
#88	Israel	30.84	88	0
#89	Hungary	30.84	87	-2
#90	Peru	30.94	85	-5
#91	Moldova	31.16	91	0
#92	Macedonia	31.28	95	3
#93	Serbia	31.62	90	-3
#94	Guinea-Bissau	32.06	89	-5
#95	Liberia	32.25	93	-2
#96	Ukraine	32.52	102	6
#97	Mauritania	32.54	94	-3
#98	Ecuador	32.62	97	-1
#99	Ethiopia	32.82	110	11
#100	Paraguay	32.97	99	-1
#101	Malaysia	33.12	123	22
#102	Lebanon	33.19	101	-1
#103	Kenya	33.72	100	-3
#104	Mozambique	33.79	103	-1
#105	Montenegro	33.83	104	-1
#106	Angola	33.92	109	3
#107	Brazil	34.05	105	-2
#108	Mali	34.12	112	4
#109	Kuwait	34.30	108	-1
#110	Guinea	34.34	107	-3
#111	Bulgaria	35.06	111	0
#112	Nepal	35.10	106	-6
#113	Benin	35.11	96	-17
#114	Bolivia	35.37	113	-1
#115	Nigeria	35.63	120	5
#116	Guatemala	35.74	116	0
#117	Nicaragua	35.81	114	-3
#118	Congo	36.56	117	-1
#119	Indonesia	36.82	124	5
#120	Zambia	37.00	119	-1
#121	Gabon	37.20	115	-6
#122	Afghanistan	37.70	121	-1
#123	Chad	39.70	122	-1
#124	Tanzania	40.25	118	-6
#125	Uganda	40.95	125	0
#126	Zimbabwe	40.95	127	1
#127	Sri Lanka	41.94	126	-1
#128	Jordan	42.08	130	2
#129	Qatar	42.51	128	-1
#130	Colombia	42.66	129	-1
#131	United Arab Emirates	42.69	133	2
#132	C.A.R.	42.87	145	13
#133	Morocco	42.88	135	2
#134	Cameroon	43.28	131	-3
#135	Oman	43.42	132	-3
#136	Philippines	43.54	134	-2
#137	Palestine	44.09	137	0
#138	South Sudan	44.49	139	1
#139	Myanmar	44.77	138	-1
#140	Thailand	44.94	136	-4
#141	Swaziland	45.15	147	6
#142	India	45.33	140	-2
#143	Mexico	45.45	144	1
#144	Cambodia	45.46	143	-1
#145	Pakistan	45.52	142	-3
#146	Algeria	45.52	141	-5
#147	Venezuela	45.66	148	1
#148	Honduras	48.20	146	-2
#149	Russian Federation	48.92	149	0
#150	Congo (DRC)	49.09	154	4
#151	Bangladesh	49.37	150	-1
#152	Brunei	49.65	152	0
#153	Belarus	49.75	153	0
#154	Turkey	50.02	157	3
#155	Rwanda	50.34	155	0
#156	Uzbekistan	53.07	160	4
#157	Kazakhstan	54.11	158	1
#158	Singapore	55.23	151	-7
#159	Sudan	55.33	175	16
#160	Burundi	55.33	159	-1
#161	Tajikistan	55.34	161	0
#162	Iraq	55.37	156	-6
#163	Somalia	55.45	164	1
#164	Libya	55.77	162	-2
#165	Equatorial Guinea	56.38	165	0
#166	Egypt	56.82	163	-3
#167	Yemen	58.25	168	1
#168	Azerbaijan	58.48	166	-2
#169	Bahrain	60.13	167	-2
#170	Saudi Arabia	62.14	172	2
#171	Cuba	63.81	169	-2
#172	Laos	64.28	171	-1
#173	Iran	64.81	170	-3
#174	Syria	72.57	174	0
#175	Vietnam	74.71	176	1
#176	Djibouti	76.73	173	-3
#177	China	78.48	177	0
#178	Eritrea	83.50	178	0
#179	Turkmenistan	85.44	180	1
#180	North Korea	85.82	179	-1

Which countries stood out in this year’s edition of the press freedom rankings?

Norway: Nordic Countries have topped the Press Freedom Index since its inception, and Norway (Rank: #1) in particular is an example for the world. Despite a very free media environment, the government recently mandated a commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the conditions for freedom of speech. Members will consider measures to promote the broadest possible participation in the public debate, and means to hamper the spread of fake news and hate speech.

Malaysia: A new government ushered in a less restrictive era in Malaysia in 2018. Journalists and media outlets that had been blacklisted were able to resume working, and anti-fake news laws that were viewed as problematic were repealed. As a result, Malaysia’s index score has improved by 15 points in the past two years. This is in sharp contrast to neighbor, Singapore, which is ranked 158th out of 180 countries.

Ethiopia: When Abiy Ahmed Ali took power in Africa’s second most populous country in 2018, his government restored access to over 200 news websites and blogs that had been previously blocked. As well, many detained journalists and bloggers were released as the chill over the country’s highly restrictive media environment began to thaw. As a result, Ethiopia (#99) jumped up eleven spots in the Press Freedom Index in 2020.

The Middle East: Though the situation in this region has begun to stabilize somewhat, restrictions still remain – even in relatively safe and stable countries. Both Saudi Arabia (#170) and Egypt (#166) have imprisoned a number of journalists in recent years, and the former is still dealing with the reputational fallout from the assassination of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.

China: Sitting near the bottom of the list is China (#176). More than 100 journalists and bloggers are currently detained as the country maintains a tight grip over the press – particularly as COVID-19 began to spread. Earlier this year, the Chinese government also expelled over a dozen journalists representing U.S. publications.

2020: A Pivotal Year for the Press

As the world grapples with a deadly pandemic, a global economic shutdown, and a crucial election year, the media could find itself in the spotlight more than in previous years.

How the stories of 2020 are told will influence our collective future – and how regimes choose to treat journalists under this atypical backdrop will tell us a lot about press freedom going forward.

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Politics

Which Populations Feel Their Country is on the Wrong Track?

New polling data shows that, in many parts of the world, people feel that their countries are on a downward trajectory.

Published

2 weeks ago

November 16, 2022

Chris Dickert

Which Populations Feel Their Country is on the Wrong Track?

Plato once used the allegory of a Ship of Fools to push for his vision of a wise philosopher-king as the ideal pilot for a ship of state.

Looking at the most recent numbers from Morning Consult Political Intelligence’s Projections of Country Trajectories, you would be forgiven for thinking that a great many people believe that their ship of state is piloted by fools.

With the impact of the pandemic, rising inflation, and growing geopolitical instability, it’s probably not surprising that most respondents feel their countries are on the wrong track; India and Switzerland were notable exceptions.

Below are some of the stand-out stories that we found digging through the data.

United States

Midterm elections have rarely been kind to the incumbent party in U.S. politics and the cost of living crisis, an unpopular president, and the aftermath of the global pandemic pointed towards an electoral bloodbath. This year’s election was also expected to set a new spending record, with over $9 billion raised.

Even so, despite 72% of respondents thinking that the country is on the wrong track, the governing Democrats have defied expectations and posted a historic performance during the November 8, 2022, midterm elections. To put this into context, in a president’s first term, there have been three previous instances (since 1922) of the incumbent’s party gaining (or not losing) Senate seats and losing fewer than 10 seats in the House.

u.s. sentiment trajectory 2020-2022

Also worth noting is the large spike in negative sentiment in January 2021, following the U.S. Capitol attack, followed by the convergence of negative and positive sentiments as the peaceful transition of power became more assured.

Brazil

Horace, in Odes 1.14, describes a ship of state that is flailing at sea that eventually rights itself, claiming towards the end of the poem that “it’s my longing and no light love you carry.”

Something like that may be happening in Brazil following the loss of the often turbulent, COVID-19-denying President Jair Bolsonaro to political rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an Oct. 20, 2022, election runoff.

Brazil sentiment trajectory 2020-2022

However, with respondents evenly split on where the country is going and the presidential election results being so close (50.9% vs. 49.1%), Lula will have his hands full governing a divided country.

India

While sentiment was overwhelmingly negative in almost every country tracked in this survey, India stood out as an outlier. India has consistently maintained a positive sentiment of between 60% and 80%, which is something only Switzerland comes close to.

india sentiment trajectory 2020-2022

The only blip was a brief period during the spring of 2021. This coincided with a deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections in the country, on top of country-wide protests against the Narendra Modi government’s deeply unpopular farm bill.

United Kingdom

The data here covers the three most recent UK Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and now Rishi Sunak, the first South Asian to hold the post.

uk sentiment trajectory 2020-2022

In January 2020, Johnson had just won a Tory majority and succeeded in “Getting Brexit Done.” Political scandals and the government’s pandemic response pushed the trendline down. It only recovered briefly in the spring of 2021, following Russia’s invasion of the Donbas region of Ukraine, which Johnson was widely seen as handling well. A personal visit to Kyiv on April 9, 2022, helped cement this.

Then followed Prime Minister Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget of Sept. 23, 2022, which saw the pound fall to the lowest-ever level against the dollar and the Bank of England intervene in the bond markets. The ascension of Rishi Sunak to No. 10 Downing Street has only just begun to turn around the low of 89% negative sentiment reported on Oct 23-25, 2022.

To quote the BBC comedy series, Yes, Minister, in another context, “the ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top.”

Politics

Visualized: The Biggest Donors of the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections

A record-smashing $9 billion has been raised for the 2022 midterm elections. See who the top 10 donors are in this graphic.

Published

4 weeks ago

November 2, 2022

Marcus Lu

Visualized: The Biggest Donors of the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections

This year’s midterm election is expected to set a new spending record, with over $9 billion being raised. This is significantly higher than the previous record of $7 billion, which was set in 2018.

According to a recent analysis by the Washington Post, $1 billion of these funds can be attributed to the top 50 donors. In typical Visual Capitalist style, we’ve illustrated this data to provide you with better insight.

Overview of the Data

The following table lists the top 10 individual donors of the 2022 midterm elections.

Rank	Name	Affiliation	Total Donation (USD millions)
#1	George Soros	Democrat	$129
#2	Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein	Republican	$70
#3	Kenneth Griffin	Republican	$66
#4	Jeffrey Yass	Republican	$48
#5	Sam Bankman-Fried	Democrat	$39
#6	Stephen Schwarzman	Republican	$33
#7	Timothy Mellon	Republican	$33
#8	Larry Ellison	Republican	$31
#9	Peter Thiel	Republican	$30
#10	Patrick & Shirley Ryan	Republican	$27

Sorting this top 10 donor list by party, we can see that $168 million was raised for the Democrats, and $338 million for the Republicans.

Continue reading below for some interesting background info on all 10 of these individuals. Net worth values were gathered from Forbes on November 1, 2022.

George Soros (Net worth: $7B)

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American billionaire, widely known for his philanthropical efforts and for “breaking” the Bank of England. He has had an illustrious career as a hedge fund manager, founding Soros Fund Management in 1970. Visit this page to see the top 100 holdings of Soros Fund Management’s portfolio.

Soros has donated over $30 billion of his fortune to various causes and charities. He is the founder and chairman of two Super PACs (political action committees) named Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II.

Unlike regular PACs, Super PACs face no limits in terms of fundraising or political spending.

Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein (Combined net worth: $7B)

Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein are the founders of Uline, one of North America’s largest distributors of logistics supplies (boxes, tape, gloves, etc.). The company makes several billion in sales per year.

The couple have gained media attention for making substantial donations to the Republican party. According to Forbes, the Uihleins have donated a total of $194 million since the 1990s.

Kenneth Griffin (Net worth: $31B)

Kenneth Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund based in the U.S. He also owns Citadel Securities, which is the largest market maker on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Market makers act as a middleman in financial markets by facilitating buy and sell orders for investors. Using equities (stocks) as an example, when a market maker receives an order from a buyer, it sells shares from its own inventory. This enables the stock market to run smoothly.

Griffin found himself in the spotlight during the GameStop short squeeze when his firm provided emergency funding to Melvin Capital Management.

Jeffrey Yass (Net worth: $30B)

Once a pro gambler, Jeffrey Yass is a cofounder of Susquehanna International Group (SIG), a successful trading firm based in Philadelphia. SIG specializes in quantitative research and trading, which involves the use of computer algorithms to identify opportunities.

Yass is frequently cited as the richest person in the state of Pennsylvania and has gained media attention for his large political contributions.

Sam Bankman-Fried (Net worth: $17B)

Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder and CEO of FTX, which is currently the world’s third largest cryptocurrency exchange behind Binance and Coinbase. The company is based in the Bahamas and offers trading in more than 300 cryptocurrencies.

In May 2022, Bankman-Fried declared that he was willing to donate “north of $100 million” in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. He has since backtracked this comment.

At some point, when you’ve given your message to voters, there’s just not a whole lot more you can do.
– Sam Bankman-Fried

Stephen Schwarzman (Net worth: $35B)

Stephen Schwarzman is the chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a globally recognized private equity firm. Blackstone’s portfolio of companies includes Ancestry.com, a well-known family history service, and Bumble, a popular online dating platform.

Shown below, Schwarzman’s wealth has increased substantially since 2020.

The bulk of Schwarzman’s political contributions have gone towards the Senate Leadership Fund, an independent Super PAC which aims to build a Republican Senate majority.

Timothy Mellon (Family net worth: $11B)

Timothy Mellon was the chairman and majority owner of Pan Am Systems, a privately held company with operations in transportation, manufacturing, and energy. In November 2020, CSX Corporation announced it had signed an agreement to purchase Pan Am. The sale was approved in April 2022.

Mellon made headlines in 2021 when it was revealed that he made a whopping $53 million donation to the Texas border wall fund. At the time of reporting, this represented 98% of total funding.

Larry Ellison (Net worth: $102B)

Larry Ellison is the chairman and cofounder of Oracle, one of the world’s largest software companies. Oracle is listed on the NYSE and has a market cap of over $200 billion. Ellison was also a Tesla board member from December 2018 to August 2022.

The vast majority of his political contributions have gone towards the Opportunity Matters Fund, which supports candidates who promote the Opportunity Agenda. It calls for enhanced financial literacy, apprenticeships, and education options.

Peter Thiel (Net worth: $4B)

Peter Thiel is a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, perhaps best known for cofounding PayPal. He also cofounded Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company, and is a general partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm with investments in major names such as SpaceX.

Thiel is one of the Republican Party’s largest donors, a position that sets him apart from many other Silicon Valley figures. In February 2022, it was reported that he would be stepping down as a Meta board member.

Patrick and Shirley Ryan (Patrick’s net worth: $9B)

Patrick Ryan is the founder and retired CEO of AON Corporation, one of the world’s largest insurance companies. In 2010, he founded another company known as Ryan Specialty Group, which provides services to insurance brokers.

Together with his wife Shirley, the Ryans have made large donations towards the Senate Leadership Fund and other Republican groups.