Press freedom ranking is idiotic, says Bhagwati

India’s ranking in the press freedom, the report said, has come down from 80 in 2002 to 105 this year. Last year it was ranked 106. Bhutan, where the first private newspaper was launched last year, topped among South Asian nations at 98 against 135 in 2002 and 148 last year.

Eminent Indian economist Prof Jagdish Bhagwati said in a statement posted on the South Asian Journalist Association website: “These rankings are idiotic and are not based on the scientifically respectable methods…That is true also for Transparency International. Asking a bunch of people whether they think India is corrupt, and trying to compare such answers across countries, is ridiculously subjective and arbitrary.” Observing that there are many things to improve in South Asia he said: “But we are not so bad as these rankings make out.”