Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Bangladesh has been labelled as one of the 'crisis' countries in the latest edition of a global report that ranks nations in terms of freedom of expression.
Bangladesh was ranked 128th out of 161 countries in the Global Expression Report 2024 prepared by the Article 19, an international human-rights organisation.
With 12 points on a scale of 0 to 100, Bangladesh's status remained unchanged in the 'crisis' category similar to that in last year's report.
Based on data available in 2023, the report classified the countries into five categories based on the scores between 0 and 100 points. Those scoring below 19 were categorised as 'crisis' countries where freedom of expression was seriously repressed.
Those scoring 20-39 are 'Highly Restricted' 40-59 'Restricted', 60-79 'Less restricted' and 80-100 'Open'.
The report said over the last decade, 6.2 billion people across 78 countries experienced a deterioration in their freedom of expression whereas only 303 million people across 18 countries saw improvement.
Similar to the 5-year timeframe, the steepest declines over the last 10 years took place in Hong Kong (-54 points), Afghanistan (-48 points), and El Salvador (-46 points).
The top five countries placed in the "open" category in terms of freedom of expression are Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium and Estonia.
On the other hand, the bottom five countries are North Korea, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Belarus and Turkmenistan.
saif.febd@gmail.com