Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recently issued the 22^nd edition of the World Press Freedom Index in which it ranked 180 countries across the globe according to their press freedom levels. More particularly, countries were assigned scores ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 being the worst possible score and 100 the best. More specifically, scores were grouped as follows: [0 – 40[: “very serious”, [40 - 55[: “difficult”, [55 – 70[: “problematic”, [70 – 85[: “satisfactory”, and [85 – 100]: “good”. RSF revealed that its’ methodology for the index centers around five indicators, namely “political context”, “legal framework”, “economic context”, “sociocultural context”, and “safety”. In this vein, RSF indicated that 36 countries were categorized as having “very bad” press freedom in the 2024 index, 49 were labeled as having “difficult” press freedom, 50 were classified as having “problematic” press freedom, 37 countries were grouped under a “satisfactory” press freedom, and 8 were screened as having “good” press freedom. Furthermore, RSF revealed that 56 individuals (54 journalists and 2 media workers) were killed in the year 2024, in comparison with 49 in 2023. RSF revealed that the year 2024 was the biggest election year in history, noting in this respect that elections are often accompanied by violence against journalists.

In detail, RSF unveiled that the Europe – Central Asia region continued to enjoy the freest media in the index notwithstanding the persistence of the Russian war on Ukraine, which weakened press freedom in Russia (global rank: 162; score: 29.86) and Russian occupied territories in Ukraine. Furthermore, the report unveiled that press freedom is “being put to the test” in three EU countries, namely Hungary, Malta, and Greece. However, the report noted that Ukraine saw a massive jump in its ranking, moving up to the 61^st position in 2024 with a score of 67.15, up from 79^th in 2023. In details, RSF revealed that Norway topped the list of countries for yet another year with a score of 91.89, followed by Denmark (with a score of 89.60), Sweden (with a score of 88.32), the Netherlands (with a score of 87.73), and Finland (with a score of 86.55). When it comes to the Americas (North, Central and South), the report pointed out that half the countries saw a deterioration in their press freedom situation and especially as a result of the political indicator, noting that journalists are unable to report on crimes, corruption or the environment. The Asia-Pacific region suffered the second worst freedom levels, with 26 out of 32 countries reporting a drop in their 2024 scores. The RSF commented that nearly half of the countries in the Middle East region were classified under the “very serious” press freedom category as the political indicator of freedom is in a “free fall” in the majority of the region’s countries since the media in the region continues to be suppressed by authoritarian rulers or rebel militias.  Country-wise, Qatar ranked first in the region and 84^th in the world in the 2024 press freedom index with a score of 58.48, followed by Tunisia which scored 49.97 and occupied the 118^th place in the world, Morocco (3^rd regionally and 129^th globally; score of 45.97) and Kuwait (4^th regionally and 131^st globally; score of 44.66).

Locally, Lebanon ranked 140^th in the world and 8^th among Arab countries in the 2024 press freedom index with a score of 41.91, registering a significant deterioration over the 2023 press freedom level at a time when it scored 50.46 and ranked 119^th globally. More specifically, Lebanon scored 45.03 in the political indicator metric (global rank: 102), 45.60 in the legal framework indicator (global rank: 133), 34.82 in the economic context indicator (global rank: 141), 42.18 in the socio-cultural indicator (global rank: 141), and 41.92 in the safety indicator (global rank: 138).