India climbs to 151st on reporters without Borders' World Press Freedom Index

New Delhi: India’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index improved to 151 among the 180 countries surveyed by Reporters Without Borders this year from 159 the previous year.

Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands take up the top three positions in the index that sought responses from more than 5,000 persons from across the world to finalise the rankings.

“We have surveyed 5,000 respondents across the world. It comprises a diverse set including policymakers, journalists and other stakeholders,” Thibaut Bruttin, assistant director general of Reporters Without Borders, said at a press conference in Delhi.

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While Bruttin refused to divulge the respondents’ identities, he insisted that it was a diverse set representing different ideologies.

India has nearly 900 privately-owned TV channels, half of which are dedicated to news.

Around 1,40,000 publications are published in more than 20 languages, including some 20,000 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 390 million copies, Reporters Without Borders said.

The US ranks 57th on the index, slipping two positions from the previous year’s ranking.

Even in highly-ranked countries such as Australia (29th), Canada (21st) and Czechia (10th), media concentration is a cause for concern, Reporters Without Borders said.

Reporters sans Frontieres or Reporters Without Borders is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation headquartered in Paris that focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information.

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