Global press freedom suffers sharpest fall in 50 years, report finds

(The Guardian)- Press freedom around the world has suffered its sharpest fall in 50 years as global democracy weakens dramatically, a landmark report has found.

According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), democracy has declined in 94 countries over the last five years and only a third have made progress.

“Democracy faces a perfect storm of autocratic resurgence and acute uncertainty, due to massive social and economic changes,” Kevin Casas-Zamora, the secretary-general of the thinktank, said.

“To fight back, democracies need to protect key elements of democracy, like elections and the rule of law, but also profoundly reform government so that it delivers fairness, inclusion and shared prosperity.”

The International IDEA’s survey – the Global State of Democracy Report 2025 – is published annually and considered the most comprehensive of its kind, covering 174 countries and measuring democratic performance from 1975.

The survey found that the freedom of the press had worsened in a quarter of the countries, marking the broadest deterioration since the beginning of the dataset.

The three largest declines were seen in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar, all suffering historically high levels of civil conflict, poverty and political instability. The fourth-largest took place in South Korea, where the former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, repeatedly targeted critical media and his government used defamation lawsuits to silence journalists before being ousted earlier this year.

The report described greatly differing contexts for problems facing the media. In New Zealand, it said, a crisis has been marked by the shrinking of the media landscape, leaving four out of five journalists working for one of only five employers. In Palestine, it said, nearly 200 journalists have been killed since October 2023, and Israel has imposed a blockade on international press entering the Gaza Strip independently.

“Between 2024 and 2025, Al Jazeera was targeted by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which have suspended the media outlet’s operations over alleged national security concerns and tensions over its coverage of certain events,” the report notes.

Chile recorded the largest improvement in freedom of expression since the International IDEA’s last report in 2021, owing in part to landmark draft legislation aimed at enhancing the safety of journalists, as well as their families.

The thinktank highlighted some positive developments: Africa recorded a large share of the global advances in democracy, accounting for 24% of the countries making progress – most notably Botswana and South Africa. Parliamentary elections in Jordan in 2024 were praised for increased fairness and Poland saw improvements too.

But the US, though a country long regarded as a leading advocate for democracy worldwide, has significantly reduced both its diplomatic engagement and its financial support for international democracy assistance this year, the report’s authors wrote.

“These developments have contributed to a weakening of international democratisation efforts. In less than six months, US domestic political institutions have also lost much of their symbolic sheen, increasingly serving as a reference point for executive overreach and offering more encouragement to populist strongman leaders than to pro-democracy hopefuls,” they said.

In 2021, International IDEA added the US to its list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, pointing to a “visible deterioration” that it said began in 2019.

One measure that may encourage and reinforce democracy would be wider offering of votes for people living abroad, the thinktank argues.

“Improving rights of voters living abroad can also reap democratic dividends in both home and host countries,” said Casas-Zamora.