Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the 2022 World Press Freedom Index on Tuesday, stating that Pakistan has dropped twelve places to 157th place out of 180 nations, placing it behind even Afghanistan.

Norway took the top spot for the sixth year in a row, followed by other Scandinavian countries, with North Korea ranked the lowest.

The international watchdog takes several factors into account to calculate the press freedom score in a country or territory from 180 jurisdictions. A score of less than 40 indicates that press freedom faces “very serious” danger while scores between 40 and 55 show that journalists face difficulty in performing their work. Any score between 55 and 70 denotes a “problematic” situation.

The index shows that Pakistan was ranked 157 with a 37.99 score after falling 12 points from the previous year when the RSF ranked it at 145 with a 53.14 score.

Pakistani journalists faced increased dangers from January to December 2021, according to a detailed analysis, with the country placing 168 on the security indicator with a 17.45 score. With scores of 31.92 and 39.57, the economic and political indicators also flashed red.

Afghanistan, which was taken over by the Taliban in August 2021, ranked 156 (score 38.27) on the latest index after falling several points from 122 (score 59.81) in the previous year.