| Title: | Download and Process Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index Data |
|---|---|
| Description: | Download press freedom index data from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) with period-aware encoding handling. Data are downloaded from the RSF website (<https://rsf.org/en/index>). Provides infrastructure for data cleaning and ISO 3166 standardization in downstream phases. |
| Authors: | Peter Baumgartner [aut, cre] (ORCID: <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4526-8791>) |
| Maintainer: | Peter Baumgartner <[email protected]> |
| License: | MIT + file LICENSE |
| Version: | 0.3.0.9000 |
| Built: | 2026-10-13 11:28:28 UTC |
| Source: | https://github.com/petzi53/pressfreedom.data |
A comprehensive dataset of press freedom indicators from Reporters Without Borders (RSF: Reporters Sans Frontieres, the organization's French name and legal identity; RWB: Reporters Without Borders, its common English name – used for the 'rwb_' prefix throughout this package), standardized and cleaned by the pressfreedom.data package pipeline.
rwb_standardizedrwb_standardized
A data frame with 4,192 rows and 20 columns:
Numeric year (2002-2026, excluding 2011)
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code
Standardized country name in English
Press freedom score (0-100; higher = more free). Comparable only within periods.
Rank within the year (1 = most free)
Sub-index: Political context (if available)
Rank within political context (if available)
Sub-index: Economic context (if available)
Rank within economic context (if available)
Sub-index: Legal context (if available)
Rank within legal context (if available)
Sub-index: Social context (if available)
Rank within social context (if available)
Sub-index: Safety (if available)
Rank within safety (if available)
Geographic zone assigned by RSF
Previous year's rank (year_n - 1)
Change in rank from previous year
Previous year's score (year_n - 1)
Change in score from previous year
## Data Cleaning Pipeline
This dataset is the output of a comprehensive 4-phase data pipeline implemented in the pressfreedom.data package:
- **Phase A (Download):** Raw CSV files from RSF website - **Phase B (Normalize):** Column names and data types standardized across periods - **Phase C (Combine):** All periods merged into unified structure - **Phase D (Standardize):** Country names consolidated, ISO codes assigned, duplicates resolved
## Important Notes
**Audit Trail:** The full audit trail (including 'country_name_original' and 'consolidation_flag' columns) is preserved in the source RDS file ('data/processed/rwb_standardized.rds') within the pressfreedom.data package. This exported dataset contains only the 20 core columns for analysis.
**Score Comparability:** Scores are only comparable within their respective periods: - **Period 1 (2002-2012):** Non-comparable scores; use ranks for trends - **Period 2 (2013-2021):** Comparable scores (0-100 scale) - **Period 3 (2022-2026):** New methodology; different dimensions tracked
**Missing Data:** Sub-indices (political, economic, legal, social, safety contexts) are only available in Period 3 (2022-2026). Periods 1-2 have NA values for these columns.
**Cyprus:** Tracked as two separate entities: - "Cyprus" (ISO: CYP) - Republic of Cyprus - "Northern Cyprus" (ISO: CXX) - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Reporters Sans Frontieres, https://rsf.org
# Load the dataset data(rwb_standardized) # Basic summary head(rwb_standardized) # Countries included length(unique(rwb_standardized$country_en)) # Years covered range(rwb_standardized$year_n)# Load the dataset data(rwb_standardized) # Basic summary head(rwb_standardized) # Countries included length(unique(rwb_standardized$country_en)) # Years covered range(rwb_standardized$year_n)