Cultural Indicators and Global Freedom of the Press

Abstract

This study sought to determine if cultural variables might explain differences in press freedom across nations. The results confirmed that two of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions – power distance and individualism – explained a significant amount of variance in press freedom rankings produced by Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders. For example, the two factors combined to explain 48% of the variance in Reporters Without Borders rankings and accounted for 42% of the variance in Freedom House’s civil liberties scores. The results suggest that those who seek to promote freedom of the press around the world would be wise to pay more attention to cultural factors that may stand in the way of change.

Keywords:

• Cultural dimensions
• freedom of press
• power distance
• individualism
• Hofstede