Freedom of the press worldwide lives its worst time since reporters without borders (RSF) began developing its index in 2002 due to the bad economic situation of the media, which endangers its survival and threatens the integrity of their work.
RSF warns that “for the first time in the history of ranking”, “the situation of press freedom becomes ‘difficult’ worldwide.”
The media “are trapped between the guarantee of their independence and their financial survival,” he adds.
“Half of the evaluated countries have poor conditions for the exercise of journalism and only one country in four has a good situation,” Efe Elena G. Viscasillas, spokesman for RSF at its Paris headquarters.
The organization emphasizes that this situation has even more damaged a situation of the media “already maltrecha” by an advertising market controlled by Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, which in 2024 captured advertising income on their social platforms “mostly not regulated” for 247.3 billion dollars, 14 % more than in 2023.
“Without economic independence, there is no free press. When the media are economically fragile, they are dragged into the career by the audience at the expense of quality and can become a oligarch prey or political leaders that instrumentalize them,” says Anne Bocandé, editorial director of RSF
“When the media are economically fragile, they are dragged into the career by the audience at the expense of quality and can become a oligarch or political leaders who instrumentalize them.”
Anne Bocandé, editorial director of RSF
USA, leader of economic depression
RSF points to the US as the country “leader of economic depression” in the media and places it in the 57th position of the index (it loses two with respect to 2024 and 12 since 2023), in the first place because some areas have become “informative deserts” by the closure of media.
In addition, he points out that Donald Trump’s second mandate “has aggravated this situation” globally, with the cessation of media financing such as Voice of America or Radio Free Europe, which has deprived “more than 400 million people from all over the world of access to reliable information.
The freezing of USAID funds has also affected hundreds of media, some of which are already closing, as in Ukraine, where 90 % of the media depends on foreign donations.
RSF denounces that in 46 countries the property of the media is very concentrated in private or state hands.
He emphasizes that this hyperconcentration of the media is “a reason for concern in well positioned countries”, such as Finland (5), Canada (21) or Australia (29).
In France (25, four positions less in one year), eight great fortunes have about twenty headwaters that total 81 % of the dissemination of national newspapers and 95 % of that of national weekly.
The annual classification is headed for the ninth consecutive year by Norway, the only country with a “good” situation in the five indicators that make up the classification.
They are followed by Estonia, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Ireland. The first fifteen countries are European, and in 16 position appears New Zealand.
The last position is again for Eritrea (180) and just above are North Korea, China (falls six positions), Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
In 42 countries, which add up to 56.7 % of the world’s population, the situation of press freedom is “very serious,” RSF warns.
2025 RSF classification table.
Western Europe, the only region that is saved
By regions, the changes in the list show how the gap between Western Europe and the rest of the areas, including Eastern Europe.
Russia loses 9 positions and stands in 171, which enters the ten worst. “The media are controlled by the State or by oligarchs near the Kremlin,” says RSF.
In America, 22 of the 26 countries have seen a deterioration of the media economic health indicator.
Argentina continues its fall in the qualification until the 87th position (47 positions falls in two years). The worst country on the continent is Nicaragua (172), where the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “has eradicated the independent press,” reports reporters.
Cuba occupies the 165, Venezuela on 160 and Honduras on 142. Mexico appears in 124th place, while Colombia appears in 119. The best Latin American country is Costa Rica (36), which still falls ten positions. Brazil appears in 63, which recovers 47 positions in two years after the departure of the power of Jair Bolsonaro.
The map of the report, which as usual coloring countries based on the situation of their freedom of the press, shows how dark color has extended considerably since last year in a wide area that begins in eastern Africa and extends by Russia and practically all of the Middle East and Asia.
And in Spain?
Spain resists that serious deterioration suffered by press freedom worldwide. In the RSF classification, this year, scale of position 30 to 23, its best result in the history of ranking. This advance in seven positions is due to the improvement in several indicators that make up this classification: the politician, sociocultural and security of journalists, which make Spain place in 15 % of the countries of the world with better conditions for the exercise of journalism.
But this advance is also explained, according to the annual RSF report, which is presented in the previous day of the International Press Freedom Day, for that decline of the world scenario for years and that in 2025 “places, for the first time, to most of the planet’s countries in a difficult situation.”
RSF elaborates its list taking into account five indicators that measure the health of press freedom: political, economic, legal framework, sociocultural context and security of journalists.
Spain has risen in the political climate indicator at 3.5 points which has allowed him to amount to five positions in this index (from 31 to 26), an improvement that RSF explains due to the lower tension of information professionals in 2024 with respect to 2023, when three electoral appointments and numerous manifestations, risk factors for freedom of information were recorded.
Less coverage of demonstrations and tense political events that have made progress in the indicator that measures the safety of journalists: it has risen in 1.4 points, and Spain runs from position 33 to 28.
The aggressions to reporters and reporters fall and legal and judicial pressures remain, according to RSF, “an upward violation.” RSF denounces “abusive demands against journalists, known as SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation)”, a tool, he says, of intimidation and insidious pressure, which the political and judicial sphere usually applies. “
The sociocultural indicator goes from 30 to 20 position and places Spain among the twenty best in the world to exercise journalism for the few pressures of gender, ethnicity, class or religion that journalists usually suffer in Spain and for the practice absence of taboo issues in the coverage.
Meanwhile, the economic indicator, although it rises more than one point, especially for the steep decline in other countries, continues to be the worst qualified value.
Therefore, Edith Rodríguez Cachera, vice president of RSF Spain, warns of the situation of “intelerable chronificed precariousness” that the profession lives and understands that “it is time that the sector understands that generating quality information and dispensing journalists Labor guarantees is the only exit to the crisis of model we live”
The indicator on the legal context in which journalism is exercised also lowers three positions, from 14 to 17, for “the eternal delay” -subraya- in the repeal of the most controversial articles of the Gag Law and of the so -called ‘Opinion crimes’.
It also descends, as noted, for the change of parliamentary majorities decreed by the Government to reform the election of the Presidency and the Board of Directors of RTVE.
