Photo- US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he hosts the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington, DC. © Brendan Smialowski, AFP
Freedom of the press has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, NGO Reporters without Borders (RSF) warned Thursday as it released its annual global ranking. The group reported a worldwide decline in media freedom, citing factors ranging from US President Donald Trump’s “systematic” attacks on the press to actions in Saudi Arabia, where a journalist was executed in 2025.
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 Norwayreceiving 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.
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.
Saudi Arabia (176th, down 14 places), where the columnist Turki al-Jasser was executed by the state in June – “a unique occurrence in the world” – sits alongside Russia, Iran and China at the very bottom of the ranking, which is rounded out by Eritrea (180th).
By contrast, Syria (141st) has leapt 36 places following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
