Worldwide polls supports press freedom, Internet access

www.WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) released the new 20-country poll last week on 1 May 2008 in advance of World Press Freedom Day on Saturday 3 May. The survey, which includes 18 122 respondents, is one of a series conducted by WPO this year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the declaration states that everyone has the right to “receive and impart information and ideas through any media.”

WorldPublicOpinion.org is a collaborative project managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland that involves research centers around the world. The countries studied represent about 59% of the world's population and include China, the US, Russia and India. Not all questions were asked in every country.

Majorities

Majorities in all but two of the countries polled say “people should have the right to read whatever is on the Internet.” This includes seven out of 10 in China, where the government has imposed restrictions on Internet access. Overall, 60% of those polled favor the right to full access.

Only a third of those polled around the world (32%) say the government “should have the right to prevent people from having access to some things on the Internet.” Jordan is the only country where a majority (63%) favors such restrictions, though a plurality of Iranians agree by a margin of 44% to 32%.

The broader principle of press freedom gets even wider support. Majorities in all countries polled consider it important for the “media to be free to publish news and ideas without government control.” An average of 82% say this is important, including 53% who consider it very important. Similarly majorities in all of the countries or an overall average of 79% say that people in their country should “have the right to read publications from all other countries including those that might be considered enemies.”

“The principle that the media should be free of government control receives robust support from all corners of the world,” said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. “With few exceptions, people think that the Internet should be free of government control as well.”

More freedom

Majorities in 10 nations polled think that the media in their country should have more freedom: Mexico (75%), Nigeria (70%), China (66%), South Korea (65%), Egypt (64%), the Palestinian Territories (62%), Azerbaijan (57%), Jordan (56%), Indonesia (53%) and Peru (51%). In no country does more than one in three favor giving the media less freedom. On average across all nations polled, 50% say they would like their media to have more freedom, 14% less freedom and 31% the same amount.
The biggest area of controversy is over whether the government should have the “right to prevent the media from publishing information that it thinks will be politically destabilising.” In the majority of countries the dominant view is that it should not and on average 55% have this view.

However, in six majority Muslim countries plus Russia, substantial numbers think the government should have the right to restrict politically sensitive information. Majorities favor government controls in Jordan (66%), the Palestinian Territories (59%), and Indonesia (56%) while a plurality does in Iran (45 to 31%). Views are evenly divided in Egypt, Turkey and Russia.

But this does not mean that these publics favor greater government regulation. In four of these countries, majorities think the media should have more freedom: Egypt (64%), the Palestinian Territories (62%), Jordan (56%) and Indonesia (53%). In the others, most want the media to have the same amount or more freedom, with only small minorities saying it should have less: Iran (9%), Russia (17%), Turkey (30%) and India (32%).

The countries included in this study are China, India, the US, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Britain, Egypt, France, Iran, Jordan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, and the Palestinian Territories. Polling was conducted between 10 January and 20 March 2008. For more, go to www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/may08/WPO_PressFreedom_May08_countries.pdf.

This release is part of a series of international polls related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Previously released polls have explored attitudes about women's right and racial discrimination. For more information, go to www.WorldPublicOpinion.org.