The global state of press freedom deteriorated in 2025. This is stated in the annual ranking of press freedom by the organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF), reports UNN.
Details
The rating is based on five indicators: political context, legal framework, economic environment for the media, socio-cultural context and security.
According to the rating, Ukraine has dropped by one position in the last year - now the country is on the 62nd place out of 180. This is the position between South Korea and Brazil.
The leading positions in the 2025 ranking are held by:
- Norway (1st place);
- Estonia (2nd place);
- Netherlands (3rd place);
- Sweden (4th place);
- Finland (5th place);
- Denmark (6th place);
- Ireland (7th place);
- Portugal (8th place)
- Switzerland (9th place);
- Czech Republic (10th place).
At the same time, the worst positions in terms of press freedom are in the following countries:
- Eritrea (180th place, last in the ranking);
- North Korea (179th place);
- China (178th place);
- Syria (177th place);
- Iran (176th place);
- Afghanistan (175th place);
- Turkmenistan (174th place);
- Vietnam (173rd place);
- Nicaragua (172nd place);
- Russia (171st place).
The United States, after the inauguration of Donald Trump, took 55th place in the ranking, while a year ago they occupied 57th place. This is 5 positions better than in Ukraine, but 37 positions worse than in Great Britain (occupies 20th place in the 2025 ranking) and 22 positions worse than in Moldova (occupies 35th place in the 2025 ranking).
One of the reasons for the deterioration of the global ranking in RSF is economic pressure.
There can be no free press without economic independence. When news media experience financial difficulties, they get caught up in the race to attract audiences at the expense of quality reporting and can fall prey to oligarchs and government agencies seeking to exploit them. When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press - those who promote disinformation and propaganda