Press Freedom

Every year Freedom House puts out a list of every country's freedom of the press ranking. The index breaks each country down into three categories: free, partially free, and not free. Also, there are three scores that are used to decide on this final decision: political, economical and legal environments.

Ireland had a total score of 15 out of 100 (like golf, the lower the better), ranking them in a tie for 14th with St. Lucia. Like many Western European countries, Ireland scored very high on this index (11 of the countries ahead of Ireland were also Western European countries). Ireland scored a "4" on Legal Environment, which relates to how the laws in the country are set up to ensure and protect freedoms in the press. For Political Environment they received a "6", and that has to do with the amount of influence the government or partisan interest has in controlling the media. Lastly, they scored a "5" in Economical Environment, which relates to the transparency in the media and how much control or dominance the major media outlets have.

Ireland should be look upon very positively with regards to their media control and the relationship it has with their country. Ever since 2002, when the first internet ratings were listed at Freedom House, Ireland has scored favorably and has never left the top 20 in the world rankings. This shows the importance Ireland places on their freedom of the press.

Here is a look at each regions freedoms. Green means free, yellow means partially, and blue means not free.