WILLEMSTAD - The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organization’s own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to reflect the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations, and citizens of the net known as “netizens” have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom. The index deals only with press freedom and does not measure the quality of journalism in the countries it assesses, nor does it look at human rights violations in general.
The Think To DO Institute, an independent research institute in Curaçao, is focused on the resilience of the people of Curaçao. Other research conducted by the institute shows that the resilience of a society is directly connected to the strength of democracy. Democracy is sustained by a well-education population. That education comes mostly from a free press. Therefore, the Think To DO Institute, being data-driven, is interested to know how the media feels about the freedom of the press in our local democracy.
The index consists of a questionnaire using seven general criteria: pluralism (measures the degree of representation of opinions in the media space), media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses. The questionnaire takes account of the legal framework for the media (including penalties for press offenses, the existence of a state monopoly for certain kinds of media, and how the media are regulated) and the level of independence of the public media. It also includes violations of the free flow of information on the internet.
The index consists of two part: one for the media industry itself and one for the community at large. Your responses are important the building a resilient society and will be treated confidentially. All results will be anonymized. Only survey participants who include their email will receive a copy of our final report personally when it is published in April 2023.
