2026 already this century’s worst year for the press: RSF Press Freedom Index
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PARIS: Journalism around the world is in dire straits, with Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Press Freedom Index calling it the worst year since records began. For the first time in its 25-year history, over half of the world’s countries now fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom, the media watchdog noted. “Since RSF began publishing the World Press Freedom Index 25 years ago, press freedom has been gradually deteriorating,” it noted in the sobering report, released ahead of World Press Freedom day, which will be observed tomorrow (Sunday). “Journalists are still being killed and imprisoned for their work, but the tactics undermining press freedom are evolving. Journalism is being asphyxiated by hostile political discourse towards reporters, weakened by a faltering media economy, and squeezed by laws being used as weapons against the press.” RSF Press Freedom Index paints dismal picture; more than half of the world deemed ‘difficult’ for journalists or worse According to RSF statistics since Jan 1, 2026, 13 journalists were killed around the world, while 471 are currently detained. In addition, at least 21 journalists are held hostage, while 135 remain missing in action. The US, which had already fallen from a “fairly good” to a “problematic” situation in 2024, the year of Donald Trump’s re-election, has dropped a further seven places to 64, it said. US President Donald Trump has turned his repeated attacks on the press and journalists into a systematic policy, pushing the US down to 64th place (-7). The drastic cuts to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) workforce had global repercussions, leading to the closure, suspension and downsizing of international broadcasters such as Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) in countries where they were some of the last reliable sources of information. Among some of the most disturbing of RSF’s findings was that the criminalisation of jou