India Ranks Poorly in World Press Freedom Index
India was in the 150th position out of 180 countries. Last year in 2021 in terms of freedom given to the media. This year it dropped 8 positions down to 150th- What went wrong?
The World Press Freedom Index ranks countries from 1-180 to find out the amount of freedom the media of a country has. It looks into factors related to the free working of journalists without any external pressure, presenting facts without favoring any one side, editorial freedom given to journalists without government censoring, etc. This index is calculated by a Paris-based organization called “ Reporters Sans Frontiers' (RSF). It means Reporters Without Borders. The country which secures the first position is termed as the best country in terms of freedom given to its media, whereas the country which is ranked 180 has the least freedom given to the press. The result is released on May 3 every year since 2002, which is also celebrated as the World Press Freedom Day,
This year, the 1st position was held by Norway and North Korea stood at the last position because of its dictator rule. Now you must be wondering where India is in terms of the freedom given to journalists. You might be surprised to hear that India was in the 150th position out of 180 countries. However the Rank of India is very poor, our neighboring country Pakistan has an even poorer rank of 157. But to a surprise Nepal which is a very small and comparatively poor country has a very better rank of 76 which is shameful for us.
RSF and nine other human rights organizations asked Indian authorities to stop targeting journalists and online critics for their work. They added, the Indian authorities should respect the right to freedom of expression. They should release any journalists arrested on wrong charges for their critical reporting and stop targeting and suppressing the media. Reacting to this, three Indian journalists bodies said journalists do not feel safe in their jobs. Also the attacks on press freedoms are on the rise. Journalists have been imprisoned under severe laws for baseless reasons. Sometimes they faced threats to their lives as well.
CORRECTION: Pakistan is on 157 position and not on 158 position.
