Eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa declined over the last decade, and only one country improved.

 

The Middle East and North Africa region has the lowest Expression Score of any region.
• Nearly everyone in the Middle East and North Africa lives in a country in one of the bottom 2 expression categories – and not a single country in the region is ranked as ‘Open’.

• In the last decade, 8 countries experienced declines in freedom of expression, but only 1 of these was significant (a score drop of 20 points or more): Tunisia’s score decreased by 25 points.

• The only country in the region that declined over the last year declined significantly (a score drop of 5 points or more): Palestine dropped by 7 points, moving from ‘Highly Restricted’ to ‘In Crisis’.

• Only 1 country in the region experienced advances in expression over the last year, but its score change was not significant.

Eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa declined over the last decade, and only one country improved: Syria, whose score rose from 1 to 2 – still comfortably in the ‘In Crisis’ category.

Since the Arab Spring in 2011, significant changes in scores have been rare in the region – and many of the Arab Spring countries’ scores are now similar to, or lower than, pre-2011. Tunisia held onto its advances and remained in the ‘Less Restricted’ category until 2020, but its score has since plummeted.