Bangladesh has ranked 162nd in the World Press Freedom Index 2022, slipping 10 notches from its previous ranking.
The country got a score of 36.63 in the index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday.
Bangladesh was previously ranked 152 in 2021 with a score of 50.29 while the ranking was 151 in the 2020 index. Bangladesh's position in this annual index has not improved since 2016.
Bangladesh’s position on the press freedom index is lowest among South Asian countries. India ranked 150, Pakistan 157, Sri Lanka 146, Afghanistan 156, Nepal 76, Maldives 87 and Bhutan 33 this year.
Only Myanmar ranked lower than Bangladesh by occupying 176th position.
Norway topped the index with 92.65 points for the sixth time in a row, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Costa Rica, Lithuania and Liechtenstein. North Korea ranked the lowest among 180 countries surveyed in this ranking.
"On the World Press Freedom Day, Reporters Without Borders and nine other human rights organisations asked Indian authorities to stop targeting journalists and online critics for their work," the international non-profit organisation said in a statement on its website.
"More specifically, they should stop prosecuting them under counterterrorism and sedition laws," it added.
The RSF has been publishing this index since 2002 on the basis of how freely the media can operate in different countries of the world. Bangladesh has been in this index since 2013.
So far in 2022, one journalist has been killed and three others imprisoned in Bangladesh, according to the RSF report.