Novel Coronavirus originated in late 2019 in China and spread like wildfire across nations. While lockdowns were an ideal measure to limit the transmission of the disease, they had unintended con-sequences, especially in a developing country like ours, where the majority of the population lives hand to mouth. With the nation brought to a standstill, closing down of factories and industries for months had an adverse impact on income.

The Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes annually a World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) purporting to evaluate the level of freedom available to the media in 180 countries. From a rank of 80 in the inaugural WPFI report, 2002, India’s rank fell to 122 in 2010 and 131 in 2012. The recently released 2020 WPFI has ranked India at 142, down 2 places from 2019, has been a subject of much discussion and debate amongst media persons, political parties, Governments, bureaucrats and also on social media, and thus merits a closer look at the WPFI methodology and functioning.

An ongoing pandemic of unprecedented proportions, Covid-19 has impacted lives and livelihoods across the globe. Even as the best minds in the world race towards finding preventive and curative solutions to combat and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the current crisis has been an eye-opener to several opportunities that have presented themselves during this time.