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Press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned on Thursday.
“For the first time in the Index’s 25-year history, more than half the world’s countries now fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom,” RSF said in a statement.
“The average score for all countries and territories worldwide has never been so low,” it said.
The Index shows that press freedom is in decline in 100 of the 180 countries and territories it evaluates.
Moreover, it determines that the state of press freedom is categorised as “difficult” or “very serious” in more than half of the world (52.2%), compared to just 13.7% in 2002, when RSF first began publishing its Index.
At the same time, the share of the world’s population living in a country where the press freedom situation is considered “good” has plunged from 20% to less than 1%.
Only seven countries in northern Europe led by Norway fall into this category.
‘Systematic’ attacks on the press
RSF states that while EU member states “retain their leading positions” in the Index, partly thanks to the recent European Media Freedom Act, which came into force in August 2025.
However, it also notes that many EU countries are in breach of the act, for example Germany, whose national security laws “do not meet the act’s strict requirements regarding the protection of journalists and their sources.”
In eastern Europe, Ukraine stands out among its neighbours, with its position improving seven places to 55th despite wartime conditions amid Russia’s full-scale invasion.
RSF’s index has pushed the US down seven places to 64th globally, due to US President Donald Trump’s “systematic policy” of “repeated attacks on the press and journalists,” report said.
Beyond Trump’s attacks on the press, the situation in the US has also been marked by apparent targeting of journalists and drastic cuts to funding for US international broadcasting, the report said.
Meanwhile, the 172nd-ranked Russia was deemed “a specialist in using laws designed to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism to restrict press freedom,” RSF warned.
A total of 48 journalists were behind bars in Russia as of April, the report said.
RSF categorised the Middle East and North Africa as the region where the state of journalism is “the most catastrophic”.
Meanwhile, Gaza and the West Bank have been deemed as “the most dangerous in the world” for journalists, citing 220 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, including at least 70 “slain due to their work”.
Intimidation and other pressures, including threats to journalists’ lives and safety, have been near-constant, the report said, where “the journalists who had resisted pressure from Hamas in Gaza have been confronted with Israeli propaganda accusing them of working for Hamas.”
18 out of 19 countries in the region are classified as “very serious” or “difficult”.
RSF praised the positive momentum in Syria, noting its ranking rose from 177th in 2025 to 141st. While the situation remained “very serious,” the country showed a historic improvement of 36 places after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The steepest decline in 2026 was in junta-led Niger which fell 37 places to 120th, illustrating a wider decline in press freedom in the Sahel region seen in recent years, as attacks by armed groups and ruling juntas have suppressed the right to free press.
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