NEW DELHI, May 3: Indian slipped down while Pakistan climbed up the ladder in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index released by the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). India’s ranking in the latest report of the RSF slipped to 161 from 150 in the last year while that of Pakistan went up to 150, an improvement from the last year’s 157th rank.
Sri Lanka also made significant improvement on the index, ranking 135th this year as against 146th in 2022. Norway, Ireland and Denmark occupied the top three positions in press freedom, while Vietnam, China and North Korea constituted the bottom three.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) comes out with a global ranking of press freedom every year. RSF is an international NGO whose self-proclaimed aim is to defend and promote media freedom. Headquartered in Paris, it has consultative status with the United Nations. The objective of the World Press Freedom Index which it releases every year, “is to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories” in the previous calendar year.
RSF defines press freedom as “the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
