Global press freedom falls to lowest level in 25 years, RSF warns

The NGO’s annual ranking, which was established in 2002, uses a five-point scale to asses the level of press freedom in a country, ranging from “very serious” to “good”. This year’s index reveals a global trend towards restricting press freedoms. “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.

The proportion of the population living in a country where the press freedom situation is “good” has plummeted, falling from 20% to “less than 1%”, it said. Only seven countries in northern Europe are ranked “good”, with Norway receiving the highest rating. France ranks 25th, with a ‘”satisfactory” score.

“In 25 years, the average score for all the countries studied has never been so low,” the NGO said. The United States, received a “problematic” rating and has dropped seven places to 64th, between Botswana and Panama. The organisation said US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press had become “systematic” resulting in such incidents as the the detention and subsequent deportation of the Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who was reporting on the arrests of migrants in the United States.

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Trump has also overseen a drastic reduction in funding for US international broadcasting. RSF also highlighted the dramatic falls of El Salvador (143rd), which has dropped 105 places since 2014 following the launch of a war against the Maras criminal gangs, and Georgia(135th), which has fallen 75 places since 2020 due to an “escalation of repression”. The sharpest decline in 2026 is attributed to Niger (120th, down 37 places) due to the “the deterioration of press freedom in the Sahel over several years”, amid “attacks by armed groups and (the) ruling juntas”, RSF said.

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