Press Freedom Dashboard

A Shiny dashboard for exploring Reporters Without Borders (RWB) Press Freedom Index data from 2002 to the present. Combines RWB scores with United Nations M49 geographic classifications to enable comparisons across countries, regions, and time.

pressfreedom

An interactive Shiny dashboard for exploring the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index, 2002–2026, across countries, regions, and time — including a five-dimension breakdown (political, economic, legal, social, safety) available from 2022 onward.

Two ways to use it

• pbaumgartner-pressfreedom.share.connect.posit.cloud — for casual, interactive exploration. No install needed, full feature support, and stable long-term hosting.

• As an R package — for heavy exploration, repeated sessions, or offline use, avoiding any rate limits entirely:

  remotes::install_github("petzi53/pressfreedom")
  # or: pak::pak("petzi53/pressfreedom")
  
  library(pressfreedom)
  run_app()
  

Both run the exact same app code (inst/app/app.R), so the experience is identical either way.

Data

Data is sourced from RSF and standardized by the companion pressfreedom.data package, which pressfreedom loads live at startup (pressfreedom.data::rwb_standardized) rather than bundling. See its pkgdown site for the full data dictionary, cleaning pipeline, and known-issue documentation. The dashboard's own "About" tab covers scoring bands, methodology, and limitations.

Package structure

pressfreedom/
├── R/run_app.R          # Exported run_app() launcher
├── inst/app/
│   ├── app.R            # Shiny entry point (also deployed as-is to Posit Connect Cloud)
│   └── R/                # Modules: map, trends chart, country profile, inputs, flags, about, helpers
└── DESCRIPTION

Citation & Contact

How to cite:

If you use this package or the underlying Press Freedom Index data, please cite both:

1. The pressfreedom R package:

   Peter Baumgartner (2026). pressfreedom: Press Freedom Dashboard. 
   R package version 0.1.0.
   https://github.com/petzi53/pressfreedom
   

2. The original RSF data:

   Reporters Without Borders (RSF). World Press Freedom Index. 
   https://rsf.org/en/index
   

Found a bug or have a question?

Open an issue on GitHub.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Credits

The hex logo's microphone icon is from Flaticon (microphone icons created by Magnific).

Author

Peter Baumgartner · [email protected] · ORCID · GitHub

Related

• pressfreedom.data — data acquisition and standardization
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF) — original data source