THE good thing is we have not regressed or progressed in the colour code that says the amount of press freedom one has. READ : In 2002, 20% of the global population lived in a country where the state of press freedom was categorised as “good.” Twenty-five years later, less than 1% of the world’s population lives in a country that falls under this category.
AS you can see we have always been stuck just one level below the worst category of very serious.
OUR environment has been stuck for decades at DIFFICULT.
THEREFORE it really doesn't matter if we are 16 rungs up or 9 rungs down, because the environment is still categorised as being difficult.