The global state of press freedom is now classified as a “difficult situation” for the first time in the history of RSF’s (Reporters Without Borders) World Press Freedom Index.
The 2025 Index, released today ahead of World Press Freedom Day tomorrow (3 May 2025), found that although physical attacks against journalists are the most visible violations of press freedom, economic pressure was also now a more insidious problem.
Of the five main indicators that determine the World Press Freedom Index, the indicator measuring the financial conditions of journalism and economic pressure on the industry dragged down the world’s overall score in 2025 with the conditions for practising journalism deemed poor in half of the world’s countries and satisfactory in fewer than one in four.
Launching the Index, Anne Bocandé, RSF Editorial Director said: “Guaranteeing freedom, independence and plurality in today’s media landscape requires stable and transparent financial conditions. Without economic independence, there can be no free press. When news media are financially strained, they are drawn into a race to attract audiences at the expense of quality reporting, and can fall prey to the oligarchs and public authorities who seek to exploit them. When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press — those who champion disinformation and propaganda. The media economy must urgently be restored to a state that is conducive to journalism and ensures the production of reliable information, which is inherently costly. Solutions exist and must be deployed on a large scale. The media’s financial independence is a necessary condition for ensuring free, trustworthy information that serves the public interest.”
The countries deemed worse for press freedom included Eritrea, North Korea, China and Syria while Norway, Estonia and the Netherlands topped the rankings. In terms of press freedom in the UK, its standing rose by three places to 20, partly because of the movement of other countries as well as action on targeting SLAPPs. Criticism however was made of worrying surveillance of journalists as well as the targeting of journalists during the 2024 summer riots.
Other threats to press freedom reported by the Index include media concentration and the dominance of online platforms. The report found that ‘largely unregulated platforms’ such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon continue to absorb ‘an ever-growing share of advertising revenues that would usually support journalism’ and such platforms further hamper the information space by ‘contributing to the spread of manipulated and misleading content, amplifying disinformation’.
Commenting on the UK’s ranking in the Index, RSF UK Director Fiona O’Brien said: “The UK is once again firmly in the ‘satisfactory’ category, with its score remaining stable and a rise of three places to 20 in the worldwide rankings due to the movement of other countries around it. There have been some positive developments in the UK this year, including growing political consensus on the need for anti-SLAPP legislation and the release of Julian Assange, though these have been offset by transnational attacks on journalists, worrying cases of police surveillance of journalists, and the targeting of journalists during riots in summer 2024. The UK’s economic indicator remains its weakest, with ongoing concerns around concentration of ownership, job losses and declining profitability. Now that the new Government has settled in, we need to see a real commitment to press freedom from the UK, both at home and abroad, and in actions as well as in words.”
