Guyana has maintained its ‘free’ status in the latest Freedom House report on world press freedom along with some other 67 countries worldwide.
The report has revealed though that only 15% of the world’s inhabitants live in countries with free press; 42% live in partly-free states and some 43% live in not-free environments.
According to the latest report by the world press freedom watchdog body ‘Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence’, the number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade. The report, which was released on May 4, the day designated as World Press Freedom Day, found that a number of key countries—including Egypt, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine—experienced significant declines, producing a global landscape in which only one in six people live in countries with a press that is designated free.
Of the 196 countries and territories assessed during 2010, a total of 68 (35 per cent) were rated free, 65 (33 per cent) were rated partly free, and 63 (32 per cent) were rated not free.
“This balance is almost exactly the same as in the edition covering 2009, which featured 69 free, 64 partly free, and 63 not free countries and territories,” a press release said.
The report said the population figures are significantly affected by two countries—China with its not free status, and India with its partly free status—that together account for over a third of the world’s nearly seven billion people.
The most significant region wide decline occurred in the Middle East and North Africa, while smaller negative trends were apparent in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, and Western Europe. The regional average for Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union remained unchanged, with declines in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states balanced by improvements in the former Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa registered a significant improvement in 2010, with dramatic political openings in some countries and positive legal reforms in others.
And it was noted that the year featured a total of nine status changes—five negative and four positive—with all but one spanning the partly free–not free divide. In terms of significant numerical shifts, statistics were far more balanced than in recent years, with declines (12 countries) only marginally outnumbering gains (11 countries).
The report explained that the freedom of the press index assesses the degree of print, broadcast, and internet freedom in every country in the world, analyzing the events and developments of each calendar year. Ratings are determined through an examination of three broad categories: the legal environment in which media operate; political influences on reporting and access to information; and economic pressures on content and the dissemination of news.
Under the legal category, the index assesses the laws and regulations that could influence media content as well as the extent to which the government uses these tools to restrict the media’s ability to function.
The political category encompasses a variety of issues, including editorial pressure by the government or other actors, censorship and self-censorship, the ability of reporters to cover the news, and the extralegal intimidation of and violence against journalists.
Finally, under the economic category, the index examines issues such as the structure, transparency, and concentration of media ownership; costs of production and distribution; and the impact of advertising, subsidies, and bribery on content.
It said that ratings reflect not just government actions and policies, but the behaviour of the press itself in testing boundaries, even in more restrictive environments, as well as the impact of non state actors.
Each country receives a numerical rating from 0 (the most free) to 100 (the least free), which serves as the basis for a press freedom status designation of free, partly free, or not free.
Meanwhile, in the Americas the report stated that 17 countries (49 per cent) were rated free, 14 (40 per cent) were rated partly free, and 4 (11 per cent) were rated not free for 2010. It said that the region’s population is almost evenly split between those living in free (41 per cent) and partly free (42 per cent) media environments, with the remaining 17 per cent living in not free countries. These figures, the report said, are significantly influenced by the open media environments of the Caribbean, which tend to offset the less rosy picture in Central and South America.
“There were two negative status changes, with Honduras and Mexico joining the ranks of not free countries, as well as a number of significant numerical declines. Not since 2006 have so many countries in the region been designated not free. The regional average score worsened compared with 2009, with the bulk of the decline occurring in the political and economic categories,” the report said.
