Gallup global survey: Freedom of the press increasing

May 3 (UPI) -- A global survey indicates a belief that freedom of the press is increasing around the world, a Gallup poll released Friday indicates.

A median of 64 percent of responding adults in 133 countries agreed that media in their country "have a lot of freedom," while 28 percent disagreed with the statement. The results are similar to figures collected in 2017, and a slight increase over findings in 2016.

The results were revealed on World Press Freedom Day.

The perceptions vary from country to country, with over half the respondents in 28 countries saying their media does not have freedom. Mauritania had the fewest respondents, only 18 percent, agreeing with the statement. It was followed, in order, by Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Ukraine and Gabon. In Turkey, only 32 percent agreed with the statement, and only 35 percent in Venezuela agreed.

European countries dominated the top of the list in perceived freedom of the media. In Denmark, 98 percent agreed with the statement, followed by Norway, Netherlands, Finland, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland. Over 90 percent agreed in those countries.

The United States, where the media have routinely been called "fake news" and the "enemy of the people" for the past two years, is 11th on the list, with 88 percent of American respondents saying their media are free. The figure is similar to 2017 results, but increased 2015 and 2016 levels, when figures were in the lower 80 percentile.

The change in the U.S. attitude toward the media "may be an unintended byproduct" of the confrontational relationship between the press and President Donald Trump, Gallup commented. It suggested that "intense focus on the media over the past several years has created more visibility to its role as a government watchdog, and a hyper-focus on its freedom."

The results of the survey are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in 133 countries. The margin of sampling error ranges from plus-or-minus 2 percentage points to plus-or-minus 5.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. Gallup added that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.