![[OC] Press Freedom is in a steady decline across the world 🤐](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/xftbievuqitg1-1536x1536.png "[OC] Press Freedom is in a steady decline across the world 🤐")
Data: Reporters Without Borders via Kaggle (https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/vladyslavhubanov/summary-data-from-reporter-without-the-borders)
Tools: R
R code: https://github.com/ikashnitsky/30daychart2026
Jumpstart perplexity chat: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/day-5-experimental-for-today-i-ldYZ2qw3Q3qBmwhhF902CQ
Posted by ikashnitsky
12 Comments
Stepping stone to using AI to filter out “approved” press/media and unprecedented control over public opinion.
It will happen in the west in your liberal bubbles too. Its not just despots and dictators who seek control. A right is not guaranteed, they must be fought for and won.
Anybody else see a heart react?
Methodology change between 2021 and 2022?
While I don’t doubt the general trend, something about this just seems “off” to me. Can you link the original data source?
Also, you’re packing way too much info into colors. Consider using a colormap that doesn’t have any overlap with your categorical colors. Also your colormap is off because you’re using alpha on black background
When nations go to war with other nations or support others that do existential concerns outweigh individual liberty.
Look at any thread about first amendment audits. Reddits go insane at the concept of free press. They cheer for violence against the press, sub mods go nuts when local corruption is exposed by journalists.
There are people who genuinely want the first amendment abolished because corrupt public servants react negatively.
They think publishing videos or stories and getting views/clicks or money is wrong and completely nullifies any story or crime they exposed.
It’s absolutely insane, and it’s why I’m not surprised the US is collapsing to fascism.
I have a hunch it’s not due to government intimidating or censoring them, but rather media being bought by oligarchs and politicians, and there is less and less independent media around.
The years with the most dead press members in recorded history, where the vast majority of big channels is owned by a few oligarchs, yeah I believe it.
What happened between 2021 and 2022? It is such a big global decrease in press freedom.
It took me a few seconds to understand what axis is what and which direction is more/later etc. A shift to the left is not usually how decline is visualized.
The more common orientation would be time from left to right, index from bottom to top (phone rotated 90dg counterclockwise) then a clear decline would be immediately visible.
After understanding the axes I can see the similarity to waterfall plots like they are used in radio spectrograms. But that’s very niche and not something I think of when I see a normal plot online.
everything is fucking declining globally
I just read the book 1984 a couple of weeks ago and conformity is a very scary thing which I hope does not come to reality.