April 30, 2026 / 5:42 AM EDT / CBS/AFP
Press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in 25 years, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned on Thursday. The media rights watchdog cited examples including President Trump’s “systematic” attacks on journalists and Saudi Arabia, which executed a journalist in 2025.
“For the first time in the (RSF) Index’s 25-year history, more than half the world’s countries now fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom,” the group said, adding that the average score for all countries and territories has never been so low.
The share of the global population living in a country where press freedom is considered “good” has plunged from 20 percent to less than 1 percent. Only seven countries in Northern Europe, led by Norway, remain in that “good” category.
The United States, which fell from “fairly good” to “problematic” in 2024 after Mr. Trump’s re-election, dropped seven more places to 64th in the ranking. RSF pointed to Mr. Trump’s sustained attacks on the press as “a systematic policy,” as well as incidents such as the detention and expulsion of Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who reported on migrant arrests, and deep cuts to funding for U.S. international broadcasting.
“Vladimir Putin’s Russia (172nd) has become a specialist in using laws designed to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism to restrict press freedom,” RSF said, noting that as of April 2026 the country held 48 journalists behind bars.
The steepest decline in 2026 was in junta-led Niger (120th, down 37 places), underscoring a wider deterioration in the Sahel region where armed groups and military juntas have suppressed balanced information and diverse sources.
RSF, short for Reporters sans frontières, was founded in France in 1985 and monitors press freedom worldwide.