"Significant advances in Freedom of Expression and Media Integrity, as measured in the GSoD Indices, have been achieved in the last four decades. Citizens around the world are today more able to enjoy the freedom to openly discuss political issues, and to have access to a diverse and critical media, than they were 40 years ago. These advances go hand in hand with the global democratic expansion witnessed since the third wave of democratization initiated in the 1970s. However, the last decade has seen an increasing number of countries declining on these measures. These declines are seen across all ranges of democratic performance, with Europe being the region with the greatest number of countries experiencing declines. The explanatory factors for the declines vary across countries. In some cases, the declines have occurred in the context of general democratic breakdown, aimed at limiting the space for opposition, silencing critical voices and manipulating electoral processes, while in other cases, it has occurred in a context of less severe democratic deterioration, explained by the rise of nationalist political parties, and justified by arguments of national sovereignty, law and order, national security and firm responses to terrorism. Democracies nurture themselves from a range of societal voices, critical and less critical of the state. However, if the critical voices are silenced, the space for democratic deliberation narrows. Thus, independent of the driving factors, the declines in Freedom of Expression and Media Integrity represent a weakening of an important mechanism of democratic accountability. It is essential for regimes, international actors and civil society to take every step possible to ensure that these rights are safeguarded, so that societies can benefit from the full range of views that make up the democratic fabric of societies." (Conclusion, page 8)

The Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices take a disaggregated approach to measuring democracy. This approach allows for a nuanced analysis of a country’s democratic performance. The GSoD framework recognizes that democracy goes beyond the ballot box. While competitive, clean and fair elections are essential to democratic governance, this must also be supported by strong freedom of expression and a diverse and critical press that can monitor government performance and hold the state to account for its actions [...] The GSoD Indices framework puts Media Integrity as one subattribute of the Checks on Government attribute, along with Effective Parliament and Judicial Independence, highlighting the importance of a vibrant press in holding governments to account. There are two measurements from the GSoD Indices that directly capture freedom of expression and the integrity of the media landscape: 1. The Freedom of Expression measurement. This measures the extent to which the public is able to discuss political issues openly. This measurement uses data from seven indicators based on expert surveys from Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) and one in-house coded indicator from the Civil Liberties Dataset (CLD). This measurement is a subcomponent of the Civil Liberties subattribute of the Fundamental Rights attribute. 2. The Media Integrity measurement. This measures the extent to which the media landscape offers diverse and critical coverage of political issues. V-Dem indicators are used that measure whether media outlets are critical, offer different perspectives, are biased or are corrupt, in addition to an indicator from the Global Media Freedom Dataset." (Introduction, page 2)