Qatar’s position soars in Press Freedom Index

Doha moves up 21 places in RSF’s global index, ranks top in Middle East and North Africa

NT Bureau
Doha

Qatar has made a huge leap in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, soaring 21 places to 84th position and ranking top in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to the annual report published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday.

Qatar climbed 21 places from its previous ranking which is considered remarkable. In another achievement, it was classified as “problematic” from “difficult.

The index ranks 180 countries on the ability of journalists to work and report freely and independently.
Norway retained its top position on the RSF index, but the group highlighted that the country had also seen a fall in its political score.

Eritrea ranked lowest, taking over from North Korea which was in the last position in 2023.

The 13 highest-ranked nations where were all in Europe, with Norway followed by Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany rounding out the top 10.
Germany moved up to the 10th position from 21st last year.

In its report, RSF said a growing number of governments and political authorities around the world are failing to protect journalism.

Among the countries listed, Qatar has made one of the biggest improvements. Doha now stands at 84th position, a notable improvement from its 105th placement in the 2023 index.

According to the latest ranking, Qatar is the region’s only country where the situation was not categorised as “difficult” or “very serious”.

Interestingly, the UAE has witnessed a decline in its ranking, moving down from 145 to 160, while Saudi Arabia has experienced a small improvement, climbing four places from 170 to 166.

Qatar’s improvement is remarkable also because it now stands ahead of several countries in media freedom index, including Greece (88), Israel (101), Mexico (121), and Singapore (126).

Asia, RSF said, is the second most difficult region for practicing journalism in the world.

Five countries from the continent are among the world’s ten most dangerous countries for media personnel, namely Myanmar (171st), China (172nd), North Korea (177th), Vietnam (174th) and Afghanistan.