World Press Freedom Index

India’s ranking has fallen down to 150th position from last year’s 142nd rank out of 180 countries
The ranking of India’s neighbours, except that of Nepal, have also slid down, with the index placing Pakistan at 157th position, Sri Lanka 146th, Bangladesh 162nd and Maynmar at 176th position
Nepal has climbed up by 30 points in the global ranking at 76th position
This year, Norway (1st) Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd) Estonia (4th) and Finland (5th) grabbed the top positions, while North Korea remained at the bottom of the list of the 180 countries and territories

The Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes annually a World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) purporting to evaluate the level of freedom available to the media in 180 countries.
It intends to reflect the degree of freedom that journalists, news organisations, and netizens have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom.
Methodology
- The report is partly based on a questionnaire using seven general criteria:
- pluralism (measures the degree of representation of opinions in the media space)
- media independence
- environment and self-censorship
- legislative framework
- Transparency
- Quality of the Infrastructure that supports the production of news and information
- abuses.

Content Source – The Hindu