RBG's May and August reports are not the same thing

On August 1, Turan agency published updated data from the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. This publication raised a number of questions from journalists. In particular, many people asked why to re-publish the report, which was already made public in early May? In this regard, we explain that the report published in May and its current version are not exactly the same thing.

The Press Freedom Index is actually an online assessment of the situation. Here is what is said about it in the document itself:

“The Index is a snapshot of the situation during the calendar year (January-December) prior to its publication. Nonetheless, it is meant to be seen as an accurate reflection of the situation at the time of publication. Therefore, when the press freedom situation changes dramatically in a country between the end of the year assessed and publication, the data is updated to take account of the most recent events possible. This may be related to a new war, a coup d'état, a major attack on journalists, or the sudden introduction of an extreme repressive policy.”

This is confirmed by the statistics on the number of detained and arrested journalists in the world. Today, their number differs from the data published in early May and early 2024.

Here's what it looks like:

As of January 1, the number of arrested journalists in the world was 482, and media workers 23. Today, the number of arrested journalists is already 575, and media workers 28. As noted above, all negative and positive changes in the field of press freedom are regularly included in the Index. Depending on these changes, the general trend or assessment of the situation in a particular country may also change. In this case, there have been no significant changes in our country, which was noted by us.