There has been a newly refound interest in press freedom in the face of
various global scandals, transformation of media, technological change,
obstacles to deliberative democracy, and other factors. Press freedom is
frequently used also as an explanatory factor in comparative empirical
research. However, validations of existing measurement instruments on press
freedom have been far and few between. Given these points, this paper evaluates
eight cross-country instruments on press freedom in 147 countries between 2001
and 2020, replicating an earlier study with a comparable research setup. The
methodology is based on principal component analysis and multi-level regression
modeling. According to the results, the construct (convergence) validity of the
instruments is good; they all measure the same underlying semi-narrow
definition for press freedom elaborated in the paper. In addition, any of the
indices seems suitable to be used interchangeability in empirical research.
Limitations and future research directions are further discussed.Comment: Submitte