Mongolia ranks 73rd in 2020 World Press Freedom Index

AKIPRESS.COM - Mongolia ranks 73rd and scored 29.61points (problematic situation) in the Reporters Without Borders' 2020 World Press Freedom Index. "The Index ranks 180 countries and regions according to the level of freedom available to journalists. It is a snapshot of the media freedom situation based on an evaluation of pluralism, independence of the media, quality of legislative framework and safety of journalists in each country and region. It does not rank public policies even if governments obviously have a major impact on their country's ranking. Nor is it an indicator of the quality of journalism in each country or region," the Reporters Without Borders said.
The press freedom map offers a visual overview of the scores of all the countries in the index. The colour categories are assigned as follows:
From 0 to 15 points: Good situation (white)
From 15.01 to 25 points: Satisfactory situation (yellow)
From 25.01 to 35 points: Problematic situation (orange)
From 35.01 to 55 points: Difficult situation (red)
From 55.01 to 100 points: Very serious situation (black)
More than half of the defamation cases in Mongolia are brought against journalists and media outlets, pushing them to censor themselves. Mongolia's TV channels replaced their normal programming with blank screens on 26 April 2017 in protest against plans to increase the penalties for defamation ahead of the 2017 presidential election. The overall environment for the media has improved in recent years, especially as a result of the state media's transformation from government mouthpieces into public services. But media ownership is very concentrated and most media are affiliated to political parties, which curtails the emergence of independent media. Whether state or privately-owned, the media are under pressure from politicians and their ability to act as watchdogs is limited by the government's lack of transparency and its susceptibility to criticism by the imperfect media legislation.