Our English team reported on the 2nd that the press freedom index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday showed that global press freedom is at its lowest point in more than 20 years, and the economic downturn is shaking the foundation of the news industry.
RSF stressed that this year marks the first time since the organization began compiling the Media Freedom Index in 2002 that the global press freedom situation has been classified as "difficult."
“Without economic independence, there can be no free press,” RSF stated in a statement announcing the 2025 Press Freedom Index. The statement also reads: “When news media face financial difficulties, they often engage in competition for audiences, sacrificing quality reporting and risk becoming tools of oligarchs and public authorities.”
RSF said that in nearly a third of the 180 countries covered by the index, news organizations are closing; even in relatively high-ranking countries like New Zealand and South Africa, their media are facing challenges in financial sustainability.
As tech companies like Google, Meta, and Apple absorb an increasing share of advertising revenue, RSF notes that this new trend is fueling the spread of manipulated and misleading content.
The group noted that President Trump's second term dealt a further blow to press freedom as his administration ended funding for American public media outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which reported on countries where authoritarian governments suppress independent voices.
The bottom three countries in the 2025 Press Freedom Index are China, North Korea, and Eritrea. The top three are Norway, Estonia, and the Netherlands. China dropped six places from the previous year to 178th, further exacerbating an already dire situation.
“China is currently the world’s largest jailer of journalists,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, RSF’s Asia-Pacific advocacy manager.
“They did manage to arrest all those who were still brave enough to report on the issues on the ground,” she told Radio Free Asia.
Ms. Bielakovska said China's already limited press freedom began to erode more than a decade ago and has accelerated under President Xi Jinping as he and his cronies have concentrated state power in the hands of one person. She noted that the state of media freedom in China today is almost comparable to the dynastic regime in North Korea, which controls information completely.
Not only that, the operating space for foreign media in China has also become extremely limited.
She said that about 15 years ago, foreign journalists could still travel to Xinjiang, Tibet and other regions where there was friction with Beijing's rule to conduct interviews, but now it is almost impossible to enter these areas unless they join government-organized propaganda groups.
“This is not just an authoritarian state, it’s a truly totalitarian system,” she said. “In this system, no one can speak out, no one can report on any issues, and journalists can only work as propaganda tools for the party.”
Worse still, China’s aggressive crackdown on independent media is increasingly being emulated across Southeast Asia and beyond.
In Cambodia, a Southeast Asian nation with close ties to Beijing, the press freedom index dropped 10 places to 161st.
The continued decline reflects ongoing persecution and violence against journalists in the country, including the shooting death of environmental journalist Chhoeung Chheung in December 2024 while investigating illegal logging.
Mech Dara, a prominent Cambodian journalist who gained attention for his reporting on corruption and human rights violations, ultimately retired from journalism after being detained for several weeks last year.
"There are many journalists like him," said Belakovska. "Although May Dara was one of the most respected journalists in Cambodia, he eventually gave up his journalism career because he couldn't continue under such pressure."
