Freedom of the Press 2011: Signs of Change amid Repression

In this annual index, Freedom House ranks 196 countries and territories based on the situation of press freedom. The number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade, according to the Freedom House study. The report, Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence, found that a number of key countries—including Egypt, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine—experienced significant declines, producing a global landscape in which only one in six people live in countries with a press that is designated Free. Iran remained one of the world’s 10 worst-rated countries for press freedom.