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Data for 2023

Government Censorship of the Media, 2023

2023, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Government Censorship of the Media, 2023 covers 176 countries. Belgium is highest, at 3.489; South Sudan is lowest, at -3.017. The middle country reads 0.616. Against 2022, 90 values changed (35 up, 55 down), the same countries are covered.

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Government Censorship of the Media · Data for 2023

HighestBelgium

3.489

LowestSouth Sudan

-3.017

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Government Censorship of the Media, 2023, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Government Censorship of the Media, 2023: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1BelgiumBELWestern Europe3.489
2DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe3.258
3EstoniaESTNorthern Europe3.201
4LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe3.043
5United StatesUSANorthern America3.041
6IrelandIRLNorthern Europe3.037
7CanadaCANNorthern America3.016
8GermanyDEUWestern Europe2.887
9IcelandISLNorthern Europe2.849
10SwedenSWENorthern Europe2.747
11PortugalPRTSouthern Europe2.721
12CzechiaCZEEastern Europe2.644
13NorwayNORNorthern Europe2.595
14AustriaAUTWestern Europe2.506
15BrazilBRASouth America2.501
16VanuatuVUTMelanesia2.451
17New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand2.222
18AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand2.212
19FranceFRAWestern Europe2.184
20JamaicaJAMCaribbean2.161
21LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe2.097
22MontenegroMNESouthern Europe2.088
23BarbadosBRBCaribbean2.064
24Trinidad and TobagoTTOCaribbean2.055
25SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe2.014

02In 2023

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Belgium3.489
  2. 2Denmark3.258
  3. 3Estonia3.201
  4. 4Luxembourg3.043
  5. 5United States3.041

Lowest

  1. 176South Sudan-3.017
  2. 175Eritrea-2.983
  3. 174Myanmar-2.954
  4. 173Belarus-2.822
  5. 172North Korea-2.775

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.616. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032022 → 2023

Since 2022

What changed between 2022 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 90values changed, of 176 in both
  • 35 · 55rose · fell
  • 86unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2023.

  • 174 distinct values among 176

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 1.065. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • The position is ours

    V-Dem Institute publishes values only; the order is this site’s.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 176 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg (2023). Government Censorship of the Media, 2023 [data set], describing 2023. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/media-censorship/2023

0636 held

Other years

07Questions

Government Censorship of the Media, 2023: questions and answers

Which country has the highest media censorship in Government Censorship of the Media, 2023?

Belgium, at 3.489, of the 176 countries in the file.

What year does Government Censorship of the Media, 2023 describe?

2023.

How many countries does Government Censorship of the Media, 2023 cover?

176.

Where can I download Government Censorship of the Media, 2023?

On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.

Is Government Censorship of the Media, 2023 the newest?

No. The newest held here is Government Censorship of the Media, 2025.

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