In News:

• India has slipped 8 places on the World Press Freedom Index 2022.
  
  
• With a global score of 41, India has gone down to the 150^th position from 142 last year.
  
  

What’s in today’s article:

• About World Press Freedom Index (Objective, Parameters, 2022 Index rankings, Criticism)
  
  

About World Press Freedom Index:

• The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002.
  • Reporters Without Borders is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information.
    
    
  • It is based in Paris, France.
    
    
  
  
  
• The Index highlights the degree of freedom that journalists, news organisations and netizens have in each country, and the government's efforts to respect such freedom.
  
  

Parameters:

• The Index's rankings are based on a score ranging from 0 to 100 that is assigned to each country or territory, with 100 being the best possible score (the highest possible level of press freedom) and 0 the worst.
  
  
• This score is calculated on the basis of two components:
  • A quantitative tally of abuses against journalists in connection with their work, and against media outlets;
    
    
  • A qualitative analysis of the situation in each country or territory based on the responses of press freedom specialists to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) questionnaire.
    
    
  
  
  
• Each country or territory’s score is evaluated using five contextual indicators that reflect the press freedom situation in all of its complexity:
  • Political Context,
    
    
  • Legal Framework,
    
    
  • Economic Context,
    
    
  • Socio-cultural Context and
    
    
  • Safety
    
    
  
  
  

World Press Freedom Index 2022:

• About the global scenario, the 20^th World Press Freedom Index reveals a two-fold increase in "polarisation" amplified by information chaos.
  • In other words, media polarisation is fuelling divisions within countries, as well as polarisation between countries at the international level.
    
    
  
  
  
• This year, Norway (1st) Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd) grabbed the top positions, while North Korea remained at the bottom of the list of the 180 countries and territories ranked by the Reporters Without Borders.
  
  
• The situation is classified as “very bad” in a record number of 28 countries in this year’s Index.
  
  

India’s Scenario:

• India’s position has been consistently falling in the index since 2016 when it was ranked 133.
  
  
• With a global score of 41, India has gone down to the 150^th position from 142 last year.
  
  
• Among India’s neighbours, Bhutan is ranked at 33, Nepal at 76, Sri Lanka at 146, and Pakistan at 157.
  
  

Criticism of the Index:

• Multiple countries and commentators have raised concerns with both the WPFI criteria, methodology and also about RSF’s perceived biases, lack of objectivity in ranking and lack of transparency.
  
  
• One of the primary concerns raised has been the opaqueness of the WPFI survey.
  
  
• Question-wise or category-wise scores used in computing scores on the basis of parameters are not made public, nor is the list of respondents provided.
  
  
• The Press Council of India (PCI), which acts a watchdog of the press, by the press and for the press had rejected India’s ranking in the 2018 WPFI, stating that there was a lack of clarity on the inputs for the rankings, which were based solely on perception and not on statistical data.