World Press Freedom Index: India Drops To 161st, Below Pakistan & Afghanistan

New Delhi: India has plunged 11 spots in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index.

According to the yearly report issued by French news watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters sans frontières (RSF), India stands at 161 – down from 150 in 2022.

Even Pakistan and Afghanistan are better placed, having improved their rankings this year to be at 150th and 152nd positions, respectively, out of 180 countries.

The index, published on World Press Freedom Day (May 3), places China and North Korea in the last spots at 179 and 180, respectively.

Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Portugal and Timor-Leste occupy the top 10 places in the World Press Freedom Index 2023.

The rankings are based on a country’s performance in five broad categories — political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context and safety of journalists. India’s ranking is lowest in safety of journalists category (172) and best in social indicator category (143).

Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters sans frontières (RSF) in French,

India has been given an overall score of 36.62. In 2022, had a press freedom score of 41.

The Indian government last year said it does not agree with the views and rankings in the World Press Freedom Index since it’s published by a “foreign” NGO.

Rejecting the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, the government mentioned in Parliament reasons which included “very low sample size, little or no weightage to fundamentals of democracy, adoption of a methodology which is questionable and non-transparent.”

In the 2023 report, Reporters Without Borders has stated that many journalists in India are forced to censor themselves due to extreme pressure.

The organisation mentioned in its analysis that the acquisition of media outlets by oligarchs who maintain close ties with political leaders “dangerously restricts the free flow of information” in nations.

“This is particularly the case in ‘hybrid’ regimes such as India (161st), where all the mainstream media are now owned by wealthy businessmen close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” RSF reported.