This year's World Press Freedom Index highlights the economic situation of journalists and media organisations being a major risk to press freedom, as "today’s news media are caught between preserving their editorial independence and ensuring their economic survival", Statista reports.

Due to the economic indicator of the index decreasing by more than two points in one year and the other subindices measuring the security, social, political and legal situation of the press also losing at least some ground since 2024, the overall index entered into "difficult" territory for the first time in 2025.

"Without economic independence, there can be no free press. When news media are financially strained, they are drawn into a race to attract audiences", said Anne Bocandé, the RSF's editorial director. In 160 out of the 180 countries included in the report, media outlets reported achieving financial stability only “with difficulty” or “not at all.” In a third of all countries, significant news outlets shutting down were recorded, extending to developing and developed countries.

In the US, the indicator dropped much more than the global average, by 5.4 points, and news deserts where local media coverage lacks were becoming the norm, the report states. Additionally, the Trump administration cuts to the US Agency for Global Media, affecting the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty newsrooms, added to economic difficulty and deprived over 400mn citizens worldwide of access to reliable information. USAID cuts also affected journalists all over the world who had received funding, including in Ukraine.

The security, social and legal situation of journalists in a worldwide average continues to be rated as "not difficult", if only slightly so at ratings between 58 and 67 points (where anything under 55 signals a difficult situation). The political situation of global media has been rated as "difficult" since last year, while the economic situation of the press has been in difficult territory for longer. However, in 2025, it reached a new low of just 44.1 points.

42 countries were listed in the worst category in the index – where there exists a “very serious” situation of the press. 48 countries each fall under the “difficult” category and the “problematic" group, while 42 have either a “satisfactory” or “good” situation. Norway is once more at the top of the list, ranking in first place for the ninth year running, followed by Estonia and the Netherlands. The final trio, considered the most repressive countries for the press, are China (position 178), North Korea (179) and Eritrea (180).

The United States ranked 57th in 2025, having dropped two positions. RSF notes that the country is experiencing growing distrust in the media, partly driven by antagonism from political officials, while there have also been cases of local law enforcement having raided newsrooms.

361 journalists were imprisoned as a result of their work as of December 1, 2024, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This number was the second highest on record since the CPJ started collecting this data in 1992, following only after 2022 when at least 369 journalists were incarcerated. These figures do not include those who were jailed and released throughout the year.

At the end of 2024, China had the largest number of journalists held behind bars (50). This is likely a low estimate, according to a CPJ report, since censorship makes it difficult to determine the exact number of imprisoned journalists. The next top jailers of journalists were Israel (43), Myanmar (35), Belarus (31) and Russia (30). Together, these five countries accounted for more than half of the global total of imprisoned journalists (53%), as of the day of the census.

 

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You will find more infographics at Statista