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Comment by graemep

17 days ago

Comparing that last list of countries, I do not think any has as strong protection of free speech as the US has. On the other hand the UK seems to be a LOT less racist - I think the other countries are some where in between the US and the UK.

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graemep

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danieldk  17 days ago

Most of the listed countries do much better than the US in the free speech index:

https://rsf.org/en/index

  • graemep  17 days ago

    How is the index calculated?

    I definitely disagree about the UK. We have nothing like the constitutional protections the US has.

    The other country I know well, Sri Lanka, is fairly bad, but has got a lot better in recent years and that does not seem to be reflected in the change (I cannot see a history so maybe it got better and fell in the last year) and I find it hard to believe it is really just a few places away from the likes of Yemen or Belarus.

    • graemep  17 days ago

      Looked at it. It is really an index of press/journalistic freedom, not free speech in general with is far broader (private individuals, right to protest, etc.)

      The quantitative part will have issues with data quality, and it focuses entirely repression of journalists and the media. It will be heavily distorted anywhere there is prevalent self-censorship.