Over half of world’s population in red zones
The 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) paints a bleak picture of media freedom globally, with a sharp decline in many countries. With this fact, 31 countries are now in a “very serious” situation, up from 21 just two years ago.
The 2025 World Press Freedom Index shows that over half of the world’s population lives in extremely dangerous countries where press freedom is in a “very serious” situation where working as a journalist means risking your life or your liberty.
RSF says 4.25 billion people in 42 countries now marked bright red on the Index’s map 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, 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.
The UN has also reported that 85% of people live in countries where media freedom has declined in the past five years.
Five of the world’s ten most populous countries India (ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the Index), China (172nd), Pakistan (152nd), Bangladesh (165th) and Russia (162nd) are coloured red on RSF’s new press freedom map.
Aside from India, the press freedom violations just reinforced their ranking in the bottom sixth of the Index while the number of countries in bright red on the RSF World Press Freedom Index map has doubled in five years, from 21 to 42.
According to Data journalist, responsible for the Press Freedom Index Blanche Marès “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,”
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.
However, every year on May 3rd the World Press Freedom Day is commemorated throughout the world targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom remembering those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
Of course, today’s journalism is very much guided by technology and it is not unreasonable. Especially after the development of the Internet, the use of technology in the field of communication and journalism has increased and both its good and bad effects have been felt in this field.
The situation is such that AI can be presented in an interventionist role in many of the contents to be made public through journalism and in many of its broadcasting or publishing activities.
Journalism is all about pursuit of truth based on facts and communicating it to the masses.
