Bangladesh slips 1 notch to 163 in press freedom index

Bangladesh has slipped one notch in this year's World Press Freedom Index, prepared by Reporters Without Borders, also known as Reporters sans frontières (RSF).

Bangladesh ranked 163rd out of 180 countries. The country was in 162nd position last year, according to the report released yesterday.

India has dropped 11 notches to 161st from 150th. Norway topped the Index for the seventh year in a row while North Korea placed at the bottom.

Meanwhile, Myanmar ranked 173rd, Pakistan 150th, Sri Lanka 135th, and Nepal 95th.

According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index -- which evaluates the environment for journalism in 180 countries and territories and is published on World Press Freedom Day [May 3] -- the situation is "very serious" in 31 countries, "difficult" in 42, "problematic" in 55, and "good" or "satisfactory" in 52 countries. In other words, the environment for journalism is "bad" in seven out of ten countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten.

More than a fifth of the 168 million Bangladeshis live below the poverty line and have little access to mainstream media. The internet plays a growing role in the circulation of news and information, the report said in its fact-file on Bangladesh.

The densely populated private sector media landscape includes 3,000 print media outlets, 30 radio stations, 30 TV channels and several hundred news websites.

The two leading dailies, the Bangla-language Prothom Alo and English-language The Daily Star, manage to maintain a certain editorial independence, the report said.It also termed the controversial Digital Security Act "draconian", and said, "In this legislative environment, editors routinely censor themselves."