Middle East and North Africa

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In crisis

0-19

Highly restricted

20-39

Restricted

40-59

Less restricted

60-79

Open

80-100

Countries per expression category

11

5

2

1

People per expression category

388m

109m

18m

10m

The Middle East and North Africa continues to have the lowest Expression Score of any region (22) – 26 points lower than the global average.

• Nearly everyone in the region (95%) lives in a country in one of the bottom expression categories: In Crisis or Highly Restricted. Not a single country in the region is ranked as Open.

• In the last year, only 1 country in the region declined, but its score change was not significant (less than 5 points). Syria was the only country to advance over the year (14 points).

• Over the last decade, 8 countries experienced declines in freedom of expression, with 1 being significant (a score drop of 20 points or more): Tunisia (26 points).

• Over the decade, only 4 countries experienced an improvement in freedom of expression. The largest advance took place in Syria (16 points), but this was not sufficient to move the country out of the In Crisis category.

Almost everyone in the Middle East and North Africa lives in countries ranked as In Crisis or Highly Restricted.

Since the Arab Spring in 2011, significant changes in scores in the region have been rare, with many countries now scoring the same as or worse than before 2011. Tunisia made advances in expression after 2011, but its score has plummeted since 2020.