the United States and France fall in the world classification

Massive closures of information media, domination of the GAFAM, stranglehold of billionaires … Economic pressures threaten the freedom of the press, alert reporters without borders (RSF), notably pointing to a “disturbing degradation” in the United States under the term of Donald Trump.

In its annual classification by country published this Friday, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) paints a “difficult” situation around the world. The United States lost two places there, being in 57^e Position on 180, behind Sierra Leone. “The situation was not already brilliant” in the country, demoted by ten places in 2024, conceded the editorial director of RSF, Anne Bocandé. But it has grown further since the American president inauguration in January, author of “daily attacks” against the press.

“His administration has politicized institutions, reduces support for independent media and marginalized journalists”, subject to “growing hostility”, while “confidence in the media collapses”, summarizes the NGO. Donald Trump also initiated the dismantling of American public media abroad, such as Voice of America, depriving “more than 400 million people” of “access to reliable information”, according to RSF.

France on the wrong track

“The freezing of international aid funds”, via the USAID USAID Development Agency, has also “plunged hundreds of media in critical economic instability” and forced some “closing, especially in Ukraine” (62^e-1 place). “Press freedom is no longer an achievement in the United States,” said the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), in a report on the first 100 days of Donald Trump, earlier this week.

At the same time, “vast information deserts” are created in the United States with the disappearance of many local titles plagued by financial difficulties. These “economic pressures”, less visible than physical abuses against journalists, constitute a “major obstacle” to press freedom, insists RSF.

In the rest of the world, Norway keeps the 1^re Place for 9^e A consecutive year in the RSF ranking, Eritrea remaining in the last position, just behind North Korea and China. France (25^e), where a “significant share of the national press is controlled by a few large fortunes”, underlines RSF, loses four places.

“Israel destroys editors”

The most important drops are observed for example in Guinea (103^e-25), theater of a “terrible restriction” of press freedom according to Anne Bocandé, and, as last year, in Argentina (87^e-21), directed by the Ultraliberal President Javier Milei.

The situation is also “disastrous” in Palestine (163^e-6), according to RSF, which accuses the Israeli army of having “destroyed editors and killed nearly 200 journalists”. RSF realizes this ranking from “a quantitative statement of the abuses committed to journalists” and “a qualitative study” with experts.

More generally, the economy of the sector is “undermined” by the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft), whose platforms, “largely unregulated, capture an increasing part of advertising revenues” and participate in “the proliferation of manipulated or misleading content”.

>> Link to the complete ranking