Freedom of expression during each president's tenure
Every president since 1991, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.
| # | President | In office | Total | Per year | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jerry Rawlings | 7 Jan 1993 – 7 Jan 2001 | +59.1 points 1992 → 2000 | +7.4 points/yr | |
| 2 | John Atta Mills | 7 Jan 2009 – 24 Jul 2012 | +2.5 points 2008 → 2012 | +0.6 points/yr | |
| 3 |  John Kufuor | 7 Jan 2001 – 7 Jan 2009 | +1.6 points 2000 → 2008 | +0.2 points/yr | |
| 4 | John Mahama | 24 Jul 2012 – 7 Jan 2017 | −3.4 points 2012 → 2016 | −0.9 points/yr | |
| 5 | Nana Akufo-Addo | 7 Jan 2017 – 7 Jan 2025 | −3.8 points 2016 → 2024 | −0.5 points/yr |
Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · Ghana data · as of Sep 2026.