Press Freedom gets worse, but Brazil rises in the postbolsonaro ranking, says RSF
The indicator of the world ranking of press freedom of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), maintained in 2025 the drop recorded in recent years and reached the worst level in history.
Brazil, in turn, was one of the few countries in the world to improve in the ranking, due to the end of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). The information is included in the global analysis report released on Friday, 2.
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For the first time, the average score of all RSF countries fell below 55 points, the limit that qualifies the situation of press freedom as “difficult”. More than six out of ten countries had worsened in the ranking.
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The NGO points out that the deteriorated economic environment, which makes the financial viability of journalistic vehicles difficult, is a key piece to understand the fall in the index. “Although physical aggressions against journalists are the most visible aspect of attacks on press freedom, the most insidious economic pressures also represent a significant obstacle,” the document says.
Concentration of media property, pressure from advertisers or financiers, absence, restriction or opaque assignment of public aid, researchers say, has helped to weaken journalism exercised in the world. Without money, many vehicles need to decide between the guarantee of their editorial independence and the survival of their business.
The indicator relating to economic restrictions on the media and financial conditions of journalism is, among the five indicators that make up the world ranking of press freedom (security, social, legislature, political and economic), the main factor that drags down the overall score of countries by 2025. The only criterion that records continuous improvement is that of security.
“When a means of communication is economically weakened, it is dragged by the racing by audience to the detriment of quality, and can become easy prey to oligarchs or public decision makers who explore it. When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have ways to resist press opponents, who are often promoters of misinformation and propaganda,” says Anne Bocandé, RS’s editorial director.
The document mentions several countries that have had falls, some of them significant, in the ranking, amid the resurgence of censorship in authoritarian regimes. Already Brazil is mentioned as one of the few positive cases in the world.
The report describes that the country is in 63rd place and “continues its rise after the Bolsonaro era, with a leap of 47 positions since 2022. This evolution reflects the perception of a climate less hostile to journalism and the country stands out as one of the few to improve its economic indicator.”
Artur Romeu, director of the RSF office for Latin America, says that Brazil is one of the positive highlights of the global survey by rising 19 positions – 47 since 2022. The country has been from three years of progression.
“One of the factors (which explain the improvement) is a paradigm shift in the relationship between government and press that took place with the alternation of power,” says Romeo, in reference to the hostile climate offered by the Bolsonaro government to communication professionals. “(Moreover), the current government has placed at the center of its agenda the debate on information integrity and concern for misinformation chaos.”
The director of RSF states, however, that Brazil is among the countries where freedom of the press is considered problematic. The security for the production of sensitive reports involving authorities and the threat to the physical integrity of journalists are two of the indicators that “hold” the Brazilian context at unsatisfactory levels.
In 42 countries, representing more than half of the world’s population (56.7%), the situation is considered “very serious” by RSF. Nicaragua (172º) is mentioned as the country that became the one with the worst score in Latin America, behind even from Cuba (165th). El Salvador (135th), by the authoritarian Nayib Bukele, maintains his fall trajectory: 61 positions lost since 2020.
Javier Milei’s Argentina (87th) (87th), in turn, has fallen 47 positions in the ranking in the last two years. In Haiti (111), “the collapse of the state and the gang violence transformed journalism into a high -risk profession. The country fell 22 positions in the ranking.”
Bia Barbosa, incidence coordinator of the RSF office for Latin America and participant of the free press panel, the “Freedom of Expression Forum-150 years in defense of freedom and democracy”, promoted by Estadão on Tuesday, 29, highlighted in the event that Brazil is part of a broader South American context: the region is champion in the murder of communicators in the world, she said. She said that outside the major urban centers there is greater vulnerability to local authorities, which can place journalism between independence and economic survival.
In addition, the biggest threat to press freedom in Brazil and worldwide detected by reporters without borders, she said, is the rise of the far right. “Mainly because this distortion and appropriation of the concept of freedom of expression, which is made by the far right, has blocked important initiatives to ensure freedom of the press,” she said.
