Sri Lanka is one of the five countries that have shown improvements in freedom of speech, according to a new report.
Sri Lanka, alongside Brazil, Thailand, Niger and Fiji was reported as moving towards more openness, according to the 2024 Global Expression Report compiled by free speech organization Article 19.
The 2024 Global Expression Report (GER) released on Tuesday showed that more than half of the world’s population is “living through a freedom of expression crisis,” unable to speak freely.
In 2023, the percentage of people living in this crisis rose to 53 percent, or about 4 billion people, across 39 countries.
The annual report provides an analysis of the right to free expression and information worldwide, using 25 indicators of freedom of expression.
The study also monitors the expression of these indicators in 161 out of the 195 nations worldwide.
The report ranks the level of freedom on a 1-100 scale, with 100 being the most open.
Five categories are used by the GER to group countries: open, highly restricted, less restricted, restricted, and crisis. Freedom of expression on the crisis level spans from 0 to 19, while on the open level, it spans from 80 to 100. (Newswire)
