Press Freedom in Asia and the world in 2018
Jamal Khashoggi's last article in the Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/2018/10/17/adfc8c44-d21d-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html, 17th Oct. 2018, referred to this report: Freedom in the World 2018, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018.
He wrote that when he looked at the above report he realized that only one country in the Arab world is classified as "free" - Tunisia. Three countries - Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait - are second. The rest of the Arab world is classified as "not free".
He then wrote, "As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative."
Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and apparent killing, seemingly triggered by his criticism of Saudi Arabian government, shows how serious the issue of (lack of) press freedom is in most of the Arab world.
I decided to have a closer look at the above mentioned Freedom House report. Given below are some key highlights from my perspective largely focused on India and Asia:
* 45% countries in the world are classified as free (having press freedom), with 30% as partly free and 25% as not free.
* 39% of the population in the world lives in countries with press freedom classified as free, 24% population in partly free press freedom and 37% of the population of the world lives in not free classification of press freedom.
* India is classified as free with a score of 77/100 (higher score indicates more press freedom) but all of India's neighbours are classified either as partly free or not free! Pakistan (43), Nepal (55), Bhutan (55), Myanmar (31), Bangladesh (45) and Sri Lanka (55) are classified as partly free. China [Tibet (1), Other parts of China (14)] is classified as not free. Russia does not share a border with India but is a big Eurasian (Europe + Asia) power. It is classified as not free (20).
* Only other significant sized area-wise (so that they can be spotted on the map) countries in Asia other than India that are classified as free (press freedom) are: Mongolia (85), Japan (96) and South Korea (84).
* Countries of Western Europe, North America and Australia are largely, if not wholly, classified as free which fits in with their reputation as world leaders of press freedom.
He wrote that when he looked at the above report he realized that only one country in the Arab world is classified as "free" - Tunisia. Three countries - Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait - are second. The rest of the Arab world is classified as "not free".
He then wrote, "As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative."
Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and apparent killing, seemingly triggered by his criticism of Saudi Arabian government, shows how serious the issue of (lack of) press freedom is in most of the Arab world.
I decided to have a closer look at the above mentioned Freedom House report. Given below are some key highlights from my perspective largely focused on India and Asia:
* 45% countries in the world are classified as free (having press freedom), with 30% as partly free and 25% as not free.
* 39% of the population in the world lives in countries with press freedom classified as free, 24% population in partly free press freedom and 37% of the population of the world lives in not free classification of press freedom.
* India is classified as free with a score of 77/100 (higher score indicates more press freedom) but all of India's neighbours are classified either as partly free or not free! Pakistan (43), Nepal (55), Bhutan (55), Myanmar (31), Bangladesh (45) and Sri Lanka (55) are classified as partly free. China [Tibet (1), Other parts of China (14)] is classified as not free. Russia does not share a border with India but is a big Eurasian (Europe + Asia) power. It is classified as not free (20).
* Only other significant sized area-wise (so that they can be spotted on the map) countries in Asia other than India that are classified as free (press freedom) are: Mongolia (85), Japan (96) and South Korea (84).
* Countries of Western Europe, North America and Australia are largely, if not wholly, classified as free which fits in with their reputation as world leaders of press freedom.
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