If you like elections, and for keen political observers they remain the most compelling of dramas, then 2024 is your year. About 70 countries are going to the polls, representing half the world’s population. One senses a period in which the geopolitical climate for the next few years will be set.
We might have hoped that the biggest election year in history would represent a high-water mark for freedom of expression and debate. The reality, rather depressingly on World Press Freedom Day, and as this paper’s freedom of speech campaign highlights, is that the trends are disturbing.
