Press freedom has deteriorated significantly worldwide over the past five years, reaching its lowest level in 50 years, according to a landmark report on democracy published on Thursday.
More than one in two countries worldwide (54%) recorded a decline in one of the five key indicators of democracy between 2019 and 2024, according to the report published by Stockholm-based think tank International Idea.
"The current state of democracy is worrying," Kevin Casas-Zamora, Idea's secretary general told AFP. "The most important conclusion of our report is probably the very serious deterioration in press freedom around the world."
The freedom of the press experienced "its sharpest decline in the last 50 years" between 2019 and 2024. "We have never seen such a serious deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health."
Sharp declines
Press freedom has deteriorated in 43 countries across all continents, including 15 in Africa and 15 in Europe.
"A toxic mix is taking shape, involving, on the one hand, heavy-handed interventions by governments, some of which are a legacy of the pandemic," said Casas-Zamora. On the other hand, "there is the very negative impact of disinformation, some of which is real and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to restrict press freedom."
Idea is also concerned about the global phenomenon of traditional media concentration, but also about "the disappearance in many countries of local media that play a very important role in supporting democratic debate," said Casas-Zamora.
Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Burma, which were already poorly ranked, have seen the sharpest declines in this area.
The fourth largest decline comes from South Korea, according to the report, which cites "the proliferation of defamation lawsuits brought by the government and its political allies against journalists, and searches of journalists' homes."
The report does not include the initial effects of Donald Trump's second term, but "some of the things we saw during the elections at the end of last year and in the first few months of 2025 are quite worrying," said Casas-Zamora.
