Where does India stand in press freedom?

Being the year of super elections, 2024 stands as a crucial year with five dozen nations witnessing elections across the world.

The season of elections often comes with an impending bundle of tasks for journalists and the press, with India standing 159th among 180 countries.

India’s press freedom

India is ranked 159 out of 180 nations considered in the ‘2024 World Press Freedom Index’ report published by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières; RSF), a non-governmental organisation headquartered in Paris, France.

The index has utilised a 0 to 100 scale to evaluate press freedom in each country or territory. A country’s score reflects both quantitative data on media and journalist abuses, and a qualitative assessment based on responses from press freedom experts.

The report states that there has been a deterioration in press freedom in the Asia-Pacific region. The press freedom of 26 out of 32 countries and territories from the region has declined. 

India, which stood at 161 in 2023, has pushed up two places with 159. However, its latest position has been termed as “still unworthy of a democracy” by the RSF.

As per the data, the position of India has considerably declined over the past five years.

In 2022, it stood at the score of 150, which was 142 in 2021 and 2020, 140 in 2019 and 138 in 2018.

In the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in India, two journalists faced a similar fate while reporting.

Recently, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that on May 13 Ashutosh Srivastava, a journalist, was killed by unknown assailants while riding his motorcycle.

In another instance, on May 12, Raghav Trivedi, a reporter, was assaulted during an election rally addressed by Home Minister Amit Shah in the city of Rae Bareli, Lucknow.

The best and the worst

Norway, though maintaining its first-place ranking, has experienced a decrease in its political score. The previous leader, Ireland, now trails behind Denmark and Sweden due to political interference with media outlets by politicians.

In Asia, the countries previously at the bottom of the index – Vietnam, China, and North Korea – have been replaced by Afghanistan, Syria, and Eritrea. These nations have witnessed significant drops in their political scores, resulting in heightened persecution of journalists. 

Notably, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan surpassed India’s rank with 140, 109, and 97 scores respectively.

Neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, and China remained behind India at 167, 169, 177, and 172 scores respectively.