2015 World Press Freedom Index

How we compiled the index

The World Press Freedom Index has been published ever year since 2002 by Reporters Without Borders, an international nonprofit organization registered in France that defends freedom of information
and has consultative status with the United Nations and UNESCO.
The aim of the index is to measure freedom of information in 180 countries. It reflects the degree of
freedom that journalists, news media and netizens (Internet citizens) enjoy in each country, and the
efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom. It should not be seen
as an indication of the quality of the media in the countries concerned.
Major changes were made to the method used to compile the index in 2013 so that it is better adapted to all the situations that journalists, news media and bloggers may have to face. We are particularly grateful to the Adessium Foundation for helping us to make these changes.
The questionnaire used to compile the index was sent to our partner organizations, to our network of
correspondents, and to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights defenders. It consists of 87
questions covering all of the problems involved in providing the public with freely-reported information. It is available in 20 languages in an effort to ensure that it is fully understood by respondents.
The questionnaire used by Reporters Without Borders can be downloaded here.
As well as the questionnaires qualitative criteria, Reporters Without Borders uses quantitative criteria
based on the information obtained from its own monitoring. These criteria aim to measure the level of
violence and harassment to which journalists and other information providers were subjected during
the period assessed. For the 2015 index, the period was 15 October 2013 to 14 October 2014.
In order to make the index more informative and make it easier to compare different years, scores
ranging from 0 to 100 have been given to each country since the 2013 index, with 0 being the best
possible score and 100 the worst.
The press freedom map offers a visual overview of the scores of all the countries in the index. The
colour categories are assigned as follows:
From 0 to 15 points: Good situation
From 15.01 to 25 points: Satisfactory situation
From 25.01 to 35 points: Noticeable problems

35,01 - 55 points: Difficult situation

55,01 - 100 points: Very serious situation

Regional indicators and global indicator

Ever since the 2013 index, Reporters Without Borders has been calculating indicators of the overall level of violations of freedom of information by region and worldwide. These regional indicators and global
indicator make it possible to track year-by-year changes in freedom of information at the regional and
worldwide levels. These regional definitions are used: Americas, Africa, North Africa and Middle East,
Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, European Union and Balkans.
In the regional indicators, each countrys score is weighted by population but in non-linear manner. A
countrys weighting coefficient is derived from the decile to which it is assigned in the World Banks
listing of countries by population.
The global indicator is the average of the regional indicators multiplied by 100.

How we scored countries

Each question in the questionnaire is linked to one of six overall criteria categories and each answer is
weighted according to a system that generates a score of between 0 and 100 for each of the categories. A seventh score for acts of violence and harassment during the period assessed is compiled by
Reporters Without Borders.
These are the seven criteria categories used since the 2013 index:
Pluralism [indicator scorePlur]
Measures the degree to which opinions are represented in the media

Media independence [indicator scoreInd]

Measures the degree to which the media are able to function independently of sources of political, governmental, business and religious power and influence

Environment and self-censorship [indicator scoreEA]

Analyses the environment in which journalists and other news and information providers operate

Legislative framework [indicator scoreCL]

Analyses the impact of the legislative framework governing news and information activities

Transparency [indicator scoreTra]

Measures the transparency of the institutions and procedures that affect the production of news and information

Infrastructure [indicator scoreInf]

Measures the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information

Abuses [indicator scoreExa]

Measures the level of violence and harassment during the period assessed

Reporters Without Borders calculates two scores. The first, ScoA, is based on the first six of the
seven indicators listed above. The second, ScoB, is based on all seven indicators, respecting the
weightings used to get ScoA. A countrys final score is the greater of these two scores. This method
prevents an inappropriately low score and high ranking being given to countries where few or no acts
of violence take place because the provision of news and information is so tightly controlled.
How the two scores are calculated:

How the abuses score is calculated:

The longer that journalists, netizens or media assistants are imprisoned, the more their imprisonment
penalizes the country concerned. The weighting coefficient has the following values, based on the
length of imprisonment in years: