Press freedom negatively predicts corruption in schools — teacher unfairness and bullying victimization

Press freedom prevents the private use of power by politicians. This study aims to demonstrate that press freedom limits the private use of power by teachers and students, specifically in the form of unfair treatment by teachers and bullying among students. Data from five public sources were used to extract the following variables: global score of press freedom, percentage of students who felt unfairly treated by teachers, percentage of students who experienced bullying victimization, gross domestic product, the Corruption Perceptions Index, and Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism index. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with press freedom as the independent variable, while unfair treatment by teachers and student bullying victimization were the dependent variables, with the remaining variables serving as controls. Press freedom was found to negatively predict both unfair treatment by teachers and student bullying victimization, and this effect remained significant even after accounting for the control variables.