"The existing literature presents several studies which show that the levels of press freedom can affect the state of the economy. What has not thus far been investigated is whether the economy can affect the levels of press freedom, the specific economic conditions that mainly affect it and the differences among various countries. This study attempts to analyze the impact of economic conditions on the degree of press freedom, in 18 countries of the western world based on a quantitative analysis for the period 2002–2019, and advance our understanding of this relationship. We find that the state of the economy within a country can affect the level of press freedom while the effects of economic conditions on the degree of press freedom seem to vary among different media systems of the western world." (Abstract)