The number of people that live in countries where they are not free to express opinions and beliefs or freely access information has surged in the last year, according to a new report.
Some 4.2 billion people – over half (53%) of the global population – live in 39 countries deemed to be facing a crisis of freedom of expression, meaning that they cannot freely express their views or access information without serious consequences, according to the annual Global Expression Report from human rights NGO, Article 19.
This is higher than during any time in the current century and up from 34% of people in 2022 – driven largely by the fall of India, the world’s most populous country, into the “crisis” category in 2023.
These 4.2 billion are among more than three quarters (77%) of the world's population – more than six billion people – who live in places where freedom of expression is considered to be "in crisis", "severely restricted" or "restricted", the worst three among the five possible categories designated by Article 19.
While the annual ranking looks at how much freedom of expression everyone has in society - and not just journalists - Article 19 executive director, Quinn McKew told Press Gazette that press freedom continues to suffer around the world.
McKew said: "In the past year, 29 countries declined on the indicators relating to media freedoms, with only 12 advancing. In the past decade, the discrepancy is even starker - 94 countries have seen a decline in media freedoms, while only 29 have seen an advance.
"We know media freedom is essential for a proper functioning of democracy. Too many leaders around the world see it as a threat to their entrenched power, and authorities are determined to silence the press. We’re seeing this every day in all the corners of the world - India where prime minister Modi and his followers routinely harass the media, particularly female journalists, force online platforms to block independent media content or even jail journalists too critical of the current regime; in Argentina where Javier Milei shut down the country’s biggest news agency; or in Tunisia, where a number of journalists have been detained in the latest wave of arrests of civil society, political opposition and the media.
"Even in the European Union, press freedom comes under attack: most recently in Italy, where Georgia Meloni attempts to turn the public broadcaster into a mouthpiece of her government."
Over the past decade, freedom of expression has deteriorated sharply. Some 6.2 billion people in 78 countries - over 80% of the global population - are less free to express their views and opinions now than ten years ago. In contrast, just one in 25 - or 303 million - people live in countries where the expression environment has improved since 2013. As a consequence, only one in four (23%) people today live in countries rated by Article 19 as "open" or "less restricted" - the highest among their five categories.
On a country-by-country level, the picture is similar. In 2023, just eight countries were considered to be "open" or "less restricted", down from 13 ten years ago.
Alongside a critical decline in media freedom, India is one of the countries that has seen the biggest declines in freedom of expression overall in the past decade. Its expression score (where 100 is the best score a country can be awarded) has plummeted 35 points since 2014 when current hardline Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi took office, forcing the country from the "severely restricted" to "crisis" category.
India is among nine countries including Ethiopia, Ecuador and Moldova that fell into a worse freedom of expression category in the last year,
McKew said: "This year’s Global Expression Report sounds a very loud alarm bell. At no point in the last 20 years have so many people been denied the benefits of open societies, like the ability to voice opinions, access a free media or participate in free and open elections.
"India’s decline has happened in plain sight, yet it’s a story not many want to talk about. The data is clear - the first signs of an erosion of democracy come from attacks on expression. Given that India touts itself as the ‘world’s largest democracy’, the silencing of voices should be of major global concern.
"But violations of freedoms happen every day and around the world, as leaders degrade our freedoms one by one. Many do so through subtle policy changes presented in the name of ‘public safety’, 'morality’ or ‘national security’ - tightening the net until there is no room left to breathe.
Five countries improve their category
While the general trajectory has been towards deterioration, Brazil is among five countries that bucked the downward trend. Following former Prime Minister Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in 2022, Brazil’s expression score increased by 26 points in the last year, bringing the country back into "open" category. The country had dropped into the "restricted" category in 2019, following Bolsonaro’s victory. Among the improvements seen in Brazil in the last year according to Article 19 has been less harassment of journalists.
UK freedom of expression: worse than its peers
Despite ranking as "open", the UK (rank 33) is below Belgium (4), Ireland (8), Germany (9) and France (22). It is one of several non-authoritarian states that has taken a hit to its freedom of expression in recent years, having lost seven expression points since 2000, declining from a score of 88 to 81 over this period. Last year McKew told Press Gazette that the 'war on woke', curbs on the rights to protest, and the push to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights as among negative developments pushing down the UK's score.
On press freedom, McKew said this year that the UK's anti-SLAPP bill was a "positive" development. The bill intended to protect those who speak out on matters of public interest against lawsuits meant to silence has government support and is currently working its way into legislation. She added however that "more needs to be done to strengthen it to ensure that it lives up to its promise of protecting journalists against vexatious lawsuits."
She added: "This year, we’ve seen worrying signs of authoritarian regimes being increasingly emboldened to target journalists outside of their borders - the attack on Pouria Zeraati, journalist at Iran International, was a shocking reminder of that.
"The UK government must take those attacks seriously and do more to help ensure that journalists in exile can still consider the UK a safe-haven where they can continue their important work.
"The ongoing imprisonment of Julian Assange is also an affront to press freedom in the UK - though [Monday's] court decision to grant him a right to appeal is a step in the positive direction."
Threat to press freedom in conflict contexts
Russia was among the countries singled out in the report last year for a serious decline in freedom of expression as the government forced hundreds of Russia journalists into exile amid its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia which remains in the crisis category saw a further deterioration in its score this year, falling from seven points in 2022 to four in 2023 as the conflict continues to stifle freedom of expression in and outside the country.
"Two years on, Putin’s regime continues to threaten and undermine those operating outside of Russia, while targeting those still in the country, persecuting voices critical of the war under spurious charges of ‘extremism’ or spreading ‘fake news’ about Russia's military," said McKew. "A bigger problem is the continued corrosive influence of Russia outside Russia as a key part of its war on western democracy. For example, the recent “foreign agent” legislation in Georgia took a page directly from the Kremlin."
Elsewhere, wars such as the ongoing conflict in Gaza have also led to attacks on freedom of the media. At least 105 journalists and media workers have been killed so far in the conflict which began on 7 October last year. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the conflict was a source of 75% of all journalist deaths worldwide in 2023 and Israel is now the sixth-worst jailer of journalists in the world. While it remains in the "less restricted category", Israel's expression score has fallen from 74 in 2022 to 69 in 2023.
McKew said: "Since 7 October, Israel has critically undermined press freedom and taken actions which inhibit vital, independent reporting on the conflict. Foreign media still face severe restrictions on access to Gaza, denying their audiences access to objective information about ongoing hostilities and human rights violations. The banning of Al Jazeera, one of the only international outlets operating from inside Gaza, at the start of May was another example of Israel’s dangerous attempts to control the narrative of the war and censor essential independent reporting about it."
Sudan meanwhile, another state in conflict, languishes in the crisis category for another year, having declined from 15 to 10 points.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
