Ukraine rises sharply in press freedom rankings

Despite the war, Ukraine has risen from 106th to 79th place in the press freedom index; this has happened due to the economic stabilisation of most of the media and a reduction of the influence of oligarchs.

Source: RSF Press Freedom Index

Quote: "Situations like the almost complete suppression of independent journalism in Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine, the mass arrests of media workers in Türkiye and the subsequent increase in aggression against reporters during demonstrations in Germany have led to the fact that many countries have fallen in the ranking.

Sometimes significant falls and simultaneous rises of many other countries show how unstable the global situation is in times of crises, anti-media agitation and disinformation."

Details: The situation with press freedom in Ukraine improved (79, +27). This is due to the economic stabilisation of most of its media.

The influence of oligarchs on journalism has also decreased, but Ukraine ranks second to last in the world in the category of security. This is related to Russia's war crimes against media workers in Ukraine. Ukraine is ranked ahead of dozens of African countries and Georgia (77th place).

This year, Russia fell by 9 positions, and is now occupying 164th place.

The last positions in the rating are occupied by Asian countries such as North Korea – 180th place, China – 179th place, and Vietnam is in 178th place.

The best situation in European countries is Norway (1), Ireland (2), Denmark (3), Sweden (4) and Finland (5).

It was noted that the security situation for journalists remains the biggest problem. The security situation is "very serious" in 36 of the 180 countries, including war-torn countries such as Ukraine and Yemen, as well as in the world's biggest "prisons for media workers": China, Myanmar and Iran.

According to the RSF, the situation with press freedom is "very serious" in 31 countries, "difficult" in 42, "identifiable problems" exist in 55, and the situation is "good" or "satisfactory" in 52.

Thus, working conditions for media workers are problematic in approximately 70% of the world's countries, the same as last year.

The press freedom rankings compare the situation in 180 countries. The annual ranking is published once before World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The ranking is based on five indicators: in addition to security, these relate to the political, legal, economic and socio-cultural contexts.

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