South Korea ranked 43rd in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, dropping a notch from last year.

According to the index released by Reporters Without Borders(RSF) on Tuesday, South Korea ranked 43rd out of 180 nations, earning around 72 points to come right behind the U.S.

The country landed in the yellow bracket, indicating a “satisfactory” score on the press freedom map, which offers a visual overview of the scores of all countries in the index.

The RSF assessed that giant corporate groups are expanding their influence on the media in South Korea as well as in Japan and Australia, which ranked 71st and 39th respectively.

North Korea came in 180th place, remaining at the very bottom of the list in the red bracket with 28 other nations.

Nordic countries topped the list, with Norway, Denmark and Sweden clinching the top three spots in respective order.