Harassment of Journalists 2017

By: V-Dem Staff
Nov 26, 2018


The existence of free and independent journalism is crucial for establishing and maintaining well-functioning democracies. By constantly scrutinising politicians and public agencies, journalists perform an essential role that protects societies from corruption and the misuse of power.The fact that many journalists and reporters face harassment as well as exposure to threats and hatred on a daily basis constitute an important contemporary challenge. The recent death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is just one of many tragic examples that highlight the salience of these issues. 

This week’s map concerns harassment of journalists in 2017. It illustrates to what extent individual journalists were being harassed, threatened with libel, arrested, imprisoned, beaten, or killed by governmental or powerful nongovernmental actors while engaged in legitimate journalistic activities. A higher score (a darker blue) indicates a better result, i.e. that journalists were being harassed to a lesser extent. As we can see, Canada, New Zealand, Uruguay and large parts of northern and central Europe, perform relatively well in this aspect. However, it is crucial to note that the majority of countries were given scores in the lower range. This further accentuates that there is a widespread and continuous need for more innovative and extensive measures to counteract threats, hatred and harassment towards journalists worldwide. 

To learn more about other aspects of freedom of expression and democracy, please visit v-dem.net.