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News & Current Events May 1, 2026 at 1:58 AM

Press freedom at lowest level in 25 years amid growing authoritarian pressure

Posted by roscodawg

Press freedom at lowest level in 25 years amid growing authoritarian pressure
the Guardian
Press freedom at lowest level in 25 years amid growing authoritarian pressure
World Press Freedom Index, which assessed 180 countries, finds established journalism is ‘being asphyxiated’
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HobbesNJ May 1, 2026 +177
Authoritarian pressure and complicit corporate media ownership.
177
da_chicken May 1, 2026 +120
Not just complicit. Monopolistic. 6 corporations own 90% of the news media. No wonder there is no diversity or truth in media.
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kstargate-425 May 1, 2026 +38
Yeah and even they're merging. There's so many things Dems need to do when they get power back and it may not be top of the list that is ever growing by the day but they need to break up some of these monopolies. Trumps admin said they were open to American Airlines merging with United Airlines which would give them 50% of the US market...
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bros402 May 1, 2026 +20
Yup, if a Dem wins in 2028 we need trust busting and packing the court to start in the first 100 days
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Wayofchinchilla May 1, 2026 +8
F*** 100 days day 1 hail them all in and give them a week to put up there case they are 100% going to lose and be done with it by week 2.
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bros402 May 1, 2026 +3
I was giving them 100 days because it takes a while to get judges confirmed
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Suikerspin_Ei May 1, 2026 -3
I mean, the major tabloid and news media outlets in the Netherlands (which rank second on this RSF list) are also owned by just a handful of companies. One of these is DPG Media, a Belgian company that owns several newspapers, radio stations, news websites and TV channels. I do agree that more competition is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad for journalism.
-3
da_chicken May 1, 2026 +4
No, this would be like one company owning 70% of the local newspapers or TV news stations in EU nations west of Hamburg. Like, key to the problem is that it's a *multistate* monopoly, which limits the ability of government to even act. And there's some things that aren't really a problem when you're talking about a group of 10 million or 20 million, that suddenly become really big problems when you have 100 million or 150 million people. There gets to be too much money for just "the general population is paying attention" to actually be a reliable solution. I imagine if you think about it, there are things you're aware of in Germany or the UK that are pretty obvious problems, but it seems like they aren't able to solve at all. Like not even cultural things. There really are new problems that just show up when your population gets even bigger. There are also some that are just made worse by large geography, even in the modern age. Things like social cohesion breaking down, and information decay from a how difficult it is to communicate with policy makers who have to listen to so many people.
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THEPIGWHODIDIT May 1, 2026 +3
And search, social media, AI service curation
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PandorasBoxMaker May 1, 2026 +2
The latter needs to be better recognized.
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roscodawg May 1, 2026 +245
Here's the list: [https://rsf.org/en/index](https://rsf.org/en/index) Norway is in first place, Denmark (which includes Greenland) is at number 4, Canada improved from 21st to 20th place, and the US dropped seven spots and is now at 64.
245
Luckydog12 May 1, 2026 +142
“I’m not a rapist!” “Oh you thought he was talking about you?” Probably brought us up 2-3 spots just for that exchange.
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xIllustrious_Passion May 1, 2026 +4
I missed this, what’s the context?
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Luckydog12 May 2, 2026 +5
Recent 60 minutes interview.
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TheWolfbytez May 2, 2026 +3
Yeah, but *which* rapist?
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pchlster May 2, 2026 +6
The Rapist in Chief.
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NateShaw92 May 1, 2026 +8
18th. Not bad, not great. Portugal's summary is actually pretty funny. Why football fans?
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lordpanda May 1, 2026 +1
I thought Canada would be higher.
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Demostravius4 May 1, 2026 +6
There are a fair few first world nations to be fair.
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Weak_Ad_1370 May 1, 2026 -14
I thought the same - but it just occurred to me, does this valuation include access to information? Since FB (and other platforms?) are not allowing news on their feeds to save paying the “tax”, could that be the cause? Plus, I mean the CBC is so biased they can’t even be called “media” anymore.
-14
Capable_Kiwi2514 May 1, 2026 +14
The CBC clearly conducts journalism to a professional standard. The idea that they are unreasonably biased is just a political shibboleth at this point. 
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Cute-Translator4621 May 4, 2026 +2
CBC haters frustrate me. There's so many huge scandals in Canada that would go unreported if not for the CBC. 
2
letshaveadab May 1, 2026 +6
The people who hate the CBC the most, are National Post readers. What they don't realize (or don't care about) is that Postmedia owns most of the newspapers in Canada, and Postmedia is owned by a US hedgefund, run by a MAGA billionaire.
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Cute-Translator4621 May 4, 2026 +1
What do you mean by biased? The CBC and its affiliated programs such as the fifth estate and marketplace are constantly calling out and reporting on government corruption and wrongdoings. 
1
Bagellord May 1, 2026 -1
Another thing is, how big is the change in score between the places? if it's a very small spread from say, 1st to 15th place, then being in 15th really isn't that bad.
-1
Dracorvo May 1, 2026 +21
Doing the maths,: what happened 25 years ago? 9/11. I'm old now.
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BadAsBroccoli May 1, 2026 +9
The media owners and the stenographers who work for them worship money and power, not freedom, of anything, especially press.
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Daren_I May 1, 2026 +7
To be fair, I would like to compare this next to an assessment of the quality and quantity of news reporting in that same period. We've gone from a time when news agencies and PR firms were the primary sources to anyone with an internet connection being able to release anything they or their AI can imagine. (edit) Accountability took a big hit during that time.
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Kozmic_River May 1, 2026 +8
Not to mention the over sensationalism of media, in general, has created a “cable news culture” of essentially all style and no real substance. When media conglomerates care only about maximizing profits instead of providing healthy information to the public and the education system cares more about profits than properly educating people so that they are able to actually comprehend the increasing complexity of the information that the media has an onus to provide, this is the end result; an undereducated public that thrives on almost entirely on distraction, angertainment, and confirmation biases. The bottom line is, maybe some of the journalists actually still care about integrity in journalism, but their bosses sure as shit don’t.
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Daren_I May 1, 2026 +3
I used to be in the newspaper business for about a decade in the 90s. My first publisher was money driven, but my second publisher more than once pulled an ad to run an important story. Granted, some were discounted rate ads, but still the readers getting the news was more important overall. I miss that.
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[deleted] May 1, 2026 +13
[deleted]
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sarahbau May 1, 2026 +11
It’s worldwide, not just the US.
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phoenix25 May 1, 2026 +10
The number at a 25 year low is the average score for all countries, not just the US.
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n8_n_ May 1, 2026 +9
Reading the article would clear this up. > The average score for the 180 countries assessed by the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), was **the lowest in the index’s 25-year history.**
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steathrazor May 1, 2026 +11
I mean that's what happens when the rich own a country they don't want the truth they want tabloid stories
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kinotravels May 1, 2026 +8
Let’s not forget the billionaires and corporations buying it all up so we only have ultra right wing “news”.
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PrionProofPork May 1, 2026 +3
Namibia #23, who's the shithole country now
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medicalmosquito May 2, 2026 +3
I mean the media played a huge role in getting Trump elected twice so they kinda asked for it 
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SliceofNewsMan May 1, 2026 +4
I hope that trend is reversed soon 😐 And that can’t come soon enough…
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OneSeparate5929 May 3, 2026 +2
Paywalls ain’t helping keeping people informed.
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Rajirabbit May 1, 2026 +7
Correction: The press’ backbone is at its weakest in 25 years.
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ClintBruno May 1, 2026 +1
What is it with you peopl? Like seriously, every time someone rightfully blames the aggressors/authoritarias for something you always blame the victims instead.
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medicalmosquito May 2, 2026 +4
The press asked, nay—*begged* for another round of Trump’s bullshit because ratings, so they sort of made their own bed, here….
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Comfortable_Bird_340 May 1, 2026 +1
Bring back the underground press 
1
Mother_Airline_6276 May 1, 2026 -1
The lack of freedom comes directly from your corporate masters. I haven’t read a good news article in I don’t know how long. Just slop out here.
-1
podkayne3000 May 1, 2026 -43
Government oppression is not actually a big deal. What’s a big deal is Google and Facebook wiping out publishers’ and broadcasters’ revenue. The lack of revenue is about 1,000 times more damaging to publishers and broadcasters than censorship or even rocks thrown through office windows.
-43
doneandtired2014 May 1, 2026 +20
>Government oppression is not actually a big deal Yeah, I'm not reading the rest of this bullshit and will end with: kindly f*** right back off to wherever you came from.
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podkayne3000 May 1, 2026 -19
If the government hates the reporter, but the publisher has a lot of money, the publisher can probably protect the reporter. A reporter can come up with all sorts of ways to get around censorship and report a story that at least hints at the truth. When Google and Facebook take all of the ad and subscription revenue away, there is no publisher or station owner. There is no newspaper, news website or news channel. There is no reporter, at all. Right now, there are still a lot of reporters around, but most of the publications and channels are charity cases or living off of fat stored in better times. Few are doing well. Google and Facebook took away most of the revenue. If the current situation keeps up, reporters will be rare.
-19
Cute-Translator4621 May 4, 2026
Trudeau tried to fix this problem and actually made the media landscape in Canada far worse, I fear. I get what you're saying, but now instead of credible news, Meta platforms (which is where most people, unfortunately, get news) is now filled with misinformation and slop. It's a degradation of society and Canada's media landscape. 
0
bros402 May 1, 2026 +29
> Government oppression is not actually a big deal. > > What’s a big deal is Google and Facebook wiping out publishers’ and broadcasters’ revenue. > > The lack of revenue is about 1,000 times more damaging to publishers and broadcasters than censorship or even rocks through office windows. what "Government oppression is not actually a big deal" what are you smoking
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podkayne3000 May 1, 2026 -23
Government persecution may be personally frightening, but it’s a great promotion. If the government is trying to kill a reporter because the reporter wrote a great story, that’s like getting a Pulitzer. Everyone will want to read that story. And plenty of heavily censored newspapers are full of ads. Reporters in authoritarian regimes can earn a good living and sneak some truth in occasionally. When Google and Facebook eat all of the ad revenue, there is no publication, there is no reporter and there is no story. Maybe Google and Facebook are actually the kinder, gentler face of censorship. If so, the censors have certainly succeeded at creating powerful censorship vehicles.
-23
ClintBruno May 1, 2026 +7
The f*** is wrong with you
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