Freedom of expression is under threat across the world

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More than two thirds of us have less freedom of expression than we had a decade ago.

• More than 5.6 billion people have experienced a decline in their freedom of expression over the last 10 years. Scores have sunk in 77 countries, and only 35 countries are now ranked as ‘Open.’

• Only 4% of us – fewer than 300 million people – across just 15 countries have experienced improvements in freedom of expression over the last decade.

• In the last decade, for every 1 person who has experienced improvement in their freedom of expression, 19 people have experienced deterioration.

Crisis

0-19

Highly Restricted

Highly restricted

20-39

Restricted

40-59

Less restricted

60-79

Open

80-100

Countries per expression category

People per expression category

2,891m

2,226m

872m

892m

1,194m

The Global Expression Score has dropped 5 points in the last decade – and when adjusted for population, it has dropped 9 points.

Fewer countries are advancing – and the countries that are tend to be smaller (both in terms of population and economy) than the countries that are deteriorating.

‍Both the Global Expression Score (the mean average of country scores) and the Human Score (weighted by population, which shows the real impact) have remained stagnant over the last year.

The Global Expression Score has significantly declined over the past decade, though the decline has begun to level off.

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Freedom in numbers

countries’ expression scores have declined over the last decade

15%

of the global population live in countries ranked as ‘Open’

5.6bn

people have suffered a decline in freedom of expression in the last decade

Far more people are living amid deepening repression than are experiencing advances in their freedoms.

Those of us experiencing declines far outnumber those experiencing advances in freedom of expression. This is true whether measured over the last year, the last 5 years, or the last decade.

Last year

In the last year alone, 13 countries’ scores have declined. These declines add up to 138 points – nearly double the total of the previous year.

Of the 13 countries that experienced declines, 10 were significant (declines of at least 5 points). The largest declines took place in Argentina (19 points), Burkina Faso (18), and Mozambique (18).

4 countries’ scores improved, 3 significantly: Sri Lanka (14 points), Guatemala (16), and Poland (19) – which is now ranked as ‘Open’.

Last five years

In the last 5 years, 1.4 billion people across 51 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression, while only 613 million people across 17 countries experienced an improvement.

Massive deteriorations took place across the globe. Of the 51 countries that deteriorated, 28 experienced significant declines (drops of at least 10 points). The largest of these took place in Burkina Faso (48 points), El Salvador (38), and Afghanistan (37).

Of the 17 countries that advanced, 8 were significant. The largest advances in expression took place in Zambia (26 points), Brazil (25), and Fiji (18).

Last decade

Over the last decade, 5.6 billion people across 77 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression, while only 299 million people across 15 countries experienced an improvement.

Of the 77 countries that experienced declines, 18 were significant (score drops of at least 20 points). The largest declines took place in Burkina Faso, El Salvador, and Hong Kong (China) (49 points each).

Of the 15 countries that improved their scores, 4 were significant. The Gambia experienced the largest advance by far over the last decade (64 points), but it is an outlier: the second-largest advance was Sri Lanka (32 points), followed by Fiji (24).

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