RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025
Summary
The 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index reveals a critical economic threat to journalism worldwide, with media outlets struggling financially and losing independence in most countries.
Review
The RSF World Press Freedom Index for 2025 presents a stark assessment of the global media landscape, highlighting economic fragility as a major, often overlooked threat to press freedom. The report demonstrates that beyond physical attacks, economic pressures are systematically eroding media independence, with 160 out of 180 assessed countries experiencing significant financial instability for journalism. The analysis reveals multiple interconnected challenges: media ownership concentration, declining advertising revenues, tech platform dominance, and political interference. These factors are creating a perfect storm that threatens editorial independence and quality reporting. The report's most alarming finding is that the global press freedom situation is now classified as 'difficult' for the first time in the Index's history, with over half the world's countries experiencing severely restricted journalistic conditions.
Key Points
- Economic pressures are now the primary threat to press freedom globally
- Over 60% of countries are experiencing declining press freedom conditions
- Media economic independence is critical for maintaining trustworthy journalism