The 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found that more than half of the world’s population lives in a country where press freedom is in a “very serious” situation — that’s 4.25 billion people in 42 countries now marked bright red on the Index’s map. RSF has released a map of the Index where countries appear in proportion to their population to show the scale of attacks on the right to reliable information worldwide.
Discover the 2025 World Press Freedom Index This is appalling. More than half of the world’s citizens live in extremely dangerous places for press freedom, places where working as a journalist means risking your life or your liberty, while fewer than 8% live in places where the situation is classified as “good” or “satisfactory.”
According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index map, this 50% of the world’s population live in 36 countries (it was 31 countries in 2023) that are among the most populous in the world. Five of the world’s ten most populous countries are coloured red on RSF’s new press freedom map. They are India (ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the Index), China (172nd), Pakistan (152nd), Bangladesh (165th) and Russia (162nd).
Aside from India, which is currently holding elections, all of these countries held elections in 2023 or the first few months of 2024 in which the press freedom violations just reinforced their ranking in the bottom sixth of the Index.
The number of countries in bright red on the RSF World Press Freedom Index map has doubled in five years, from 21 to 42. The dire situation is just as obvious at the other end of the spectrum: less than 0.8 per cent of the world’s population lives in a country where press freedom is fully guaranteed, and less than 8 per cent live in a country where it can be considered “satisfactory.” This glaring imbalance illustrates the scale of the global crisis affecting everyone’s right to reliable information.
“The results of the 2025 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index reveal a stark reality: more than half of humanity lives in a country where the state of press freedom is considered ‘very serious.’ RSF calls on governments to stand up and protect the right to reliable information — it is irresponsible to let the situation deteriorate year after year. Solutions exist to improve the Index’s economic indicator, which is dragging down the overall press freedom score. It’s time to take action and repaint the press freedom map from bright red to bright green.”
Blanche Marès
Data journalist, responsible for the Press Freedom Index
Models and good practicesNews A New Deal for Journalism: RSF calls for the reconstruction of the news media industry 02.05.2025 6 countries stand out for their high levels of danger Among the 20 countries with the worst safety scores for journalists, several particularly worrying situations stand out:
Palestine (157th, down 1 place) is one of the most dangerous places for journalists. With almost 200 journalists killed in Gaza by the Israeli army since October 2023, including at least 44 slain while working, the territory has seen the highest number of journalists killed in the last two years; China (178th) and Myanmar (169th) top the list of countries with the most detained journalists. 123 are locked up in China, including 10 in Hong Kong (140th), while 59 media professionals are behind bars in Myanmar; Syria (177th) remains the country with the highest number of journalists held hostage, with 38 to date; Afghanistan (175th) stands out for its increasing media closures, illustrating increased repression of the press; Mexico (124th) holds the record for the highest number of missing journalists, with 28 unsolved cases to date.
7 territories turn bright red Three East African countries, Uganda (143rd), Ethiopia (145th) and Rwanda (146th), fell into the “very serious” category this year. In Central Asia, the falling scores of Kyrgyzstan (144th) and Kazakhstan (141st) darkened the region. In the Middle East, Jordan (147th) fell 15 places due to laws that restrict the press. Hong Kong (140th) also turned red, falling into the same category as China (178th, down 6 places), which is the world’s biggest prison for journalists.
11 countries have a score below 25/100 Egypt (170th), Nicaragua (172nd) and Russia (171st) joined the list of 11 countries with a score below 25/100, along with Turkmenistan (174th), Iran (176th), Afghanistan (175th), Syria (177th) and Vietnam (173rd).
China (178th) and North Korea (179th) are back in the Index’s bottom three countries. Eritrea (180th) has gradually turned into an information desert, a country where four journalists are victims of the world’s longest detentions without trial, including Dawit Isaak, who has been locked up for 22 years.
These countries have the most repressive environments for press freedom, marked by omnipresent censorship, extreme violence against journalists and the state’s near-total control over the dissemination of information.
2 regions where more than half of the countries are bright red The majority of countries in the Eastern Europe – Central Asia (EEAC) region and the Middle East – North Africa (MENA) region appear in bright red on the Index’s map, indicating that the conditions for press freedom are particularly difficult.
While MENA remains the lowest-ranked region in the world, the EEAC region saw the biggest drop in overall score, with a growing number of countries in a “very serious” situation, including Kyrgyzstan (144th) and Kazakhstan (141st), which dropped into the category in 2025. Only three countries – Moldova (35th), Armenia (34th) and Ukraine (62nd) – escaped this critical level and are not in bright red.
