Media Freedom The Catch Up Index Findings

What is the Catch Up Index? Are the ten “new”, post-communist member states of the EU – the EU10 – catching up with the “old”, “Western” EU members? The index registers the level of convergence or divergence along four categories:  Economy,  Quality of Life,  Democracy and  Governance. The index also includes the EU candidate and potential candidate countries, so there are 35 countries covered by the index.

Catching up in Media Freedom: The Metrics Metrics in Media Freedom – allows comparisons across countries and correlations with other indicators Media Freedom is key indicator to measure the Democracy Category; The Catch Up Index includes the Freedom House and Reporters without Borders media indices released in 2010 (based on 2009 data); Includes standardized scores of the Freedom House and Reporters without Borders (i.e. the scores were rescaled on a scale from 100 to 0); Measured on a scale (highest to lowest);

Country rankMedia freedom score Finland 72EU27&EU15+2 Max72 Denmark 72 Sweden 72 Iceland 71 Netherlands 69 Ireland 68 Estonia 68 Belgium 68 Luxembourg 66 Germany 63 Lithuania 63 United Kingdom 60EU15+2 Average60 Austria 60 Czech Republic 59 Malta 59 Latvia 58 Portugal 57EU27 Average57 Hungary 56 Cyprus 56 France 49 Poland 49 Slovenia 49 Slovakia 48 Spain 47 Greece 45 Italy 39EU15+2 Min39 Bulgaria 31 Macedonia 31 Serbia 29 Bosnia and Herzegovina 29 Romania 29 Montenegro 29 Croatia 28 Albania 12 Turkey 5 8 new member states are above the EU15+2 minimal score (“old EU”) 4 new member states are above the EU27 average Estonia and Lithuania are doing better than some of the established EU members Media freedom scores and ranks of 35 European countries

Focus on the EU10 group RankingMedia freedom score EU15+2 Maximum72 Estonia68 Lithuania63 EU15+2 Average60 Czech Republic59 Latvia58 EU27 Average57 Hungary56 Poland49 Slovenia49 Slovakia48 EU15+2 Minimal39 Bulgaria31 Romania29 Most of the “new” members – the EU10 group – are doing well in media freedom, compared to average levels within the EU; When the difference is smaller than 5 points not substantial

Media Freedom and Economy Most new member states have better Media Freedom scores than Economy Scores; Lower economic development does not mean much less media freedom;

Media Freedom and Quality of Life Most new member states have better Media Freedom scores than Quality of Life scores; Lower Quality of Life does not mean much less media freedom;

Media Freedom and the other Democracy Indicators Most of the new member states have higher scores in Media Freedom than in the other Democracy Indicators; The rest of the EU10 group have similar scores in Media Freedom and the other Democracy Scores; The graph shows the relation between Media Freedom and the other indicators that measure Democracy (satisfaction with democracy, human rights, voice and accountability, trust in people, overall democracy ratings);

Media Freedom and Governance Most new member states have better Media Freedom scores than Governance scores; Better Governance does not mean substantially more Media Freedom in the EU10 group;

Media Freedom and Quality of Education Almost all new member states have very similar scores in Media Freedom and Quality of Education (measured by the results of PISA - the Program for International Student Assessment); Media freedom and the quality of education are very closely related in the EU10 group;

Correlation coefficients - highlights > 1 - 0,6 higher correlation < 0,6 - 0 lower correlation > 1 - 0,6 higher correlation < 0,6 - 0 lower correlation Correlations between Media Freedom and ….. Correlation between Media Freedom and….. EU27 groupEU15+2 groupEU10 group Economy0,72medium to high0,76medium to high0,61medium Quality of Life0,65medium0,59medium0,62medium The other Democracy indicators0,80high0,81high0,76medium to high Governance0,78medium to high0,90very high0,56medium to low Quality of Education (PISA)0,76medium to high0,57medium to low0,87very high The highest correlation in the EU10 group is between Media Freedom and the Quality of Education; The second highest correlation is between Media Freedom and other Democracy indicators in the EU10; The correlations between Media Freedom and Quality of Life and Economy respectively in the EU10 are average; The correlation of Media Freedom and Governance is also average in the new member states;

Assya Kavrakova Program Director European Policies and Civic Participation Program European Policies Initiative Open Society Institute - Sofia