The GDP per capita of the countries listed above are relatively impressive as all countries except New Zealand appear in the top 21 countries with the highest GDP per capita in the world. From this, it is evident that there is a correlation between free speech and economic growth. Press freedom and free speech are instrumental in the economic development of a country. Countries that are developing economically are progressively implementing press freedom and free speech. The economic growth and development of a country is connected to the freedom of press, as there is a bidirectional relationship between the growth of an economy and the freedom of press.
However, according to the IFEX, countries such as North Korea (97), Burma (96), Turkmenistan (96), Libya (96) Cuba (96), Uzbekistan (91), Syria (83), etc. abide by a strict censorship and discourage free speech because they all score a press freedom index between 61-100 (World Audit, 2015). An interesting fact is how Asian countries seem to dominate the index in terms of no press freedom. I realized a trend based on geographical location as North Korea of Asia came up with the highest score in the press freedom index – meaning that North Korea have the least room for free speech among all the 186 countries used in the survey. Again, I will use the GDP per capita of the countries as an indicator for economic development. The GDP per capita (USD) of countries where free speech is abhorred is as follows: Burma (1,700), North Korea (1,800), Turkmenistan (9,700), Libya (11,300) Cuba (10,200), Syria (5,100), and Uzbekistan (3,800) (World Audit, 2015). The GDP per capita of the countries above are extremely low as no country makes the top 100 countries with the highest GDP per capita in the world. The quality of life seems to be poor in these countries where free speech is absent. Therefore, it can be concluded that free speech is correlated to economic growth and development.
