At least 6bn people around the world live in corrupt countries, according to Transparency International’s (TI) latest ranking of perceptions of corruption in the public sector. Based on surveys with analysts and business folk, TI found 69% of countries scored less than 50 (100 being “very clean”) in its index for 2017. Somalia languished at the bottom with a score of 9; New Zealand came top with 89. TI highlights the inverse relationship between graft and free speech. Nine out of every ten journalists killed since 2012 were in countries that scored less than 45. Bahrain suffered the biggest fall. In June the government shut down the country’s only independent newspaper as part of a wider crackdown on dissent.