What happens to the media? Press freedom reaches a critical level
The freedom of world magazines is in a critical situation, the economic index is under pressure and the lowest level in its history, warned the company last Thursday Reporters who have no boundaries (RSF).
In the annual report, the RSF press warned that the free rate of the Press has reached an unprecedented critical level in 2024 and continues to decline in 2025, so the global status of world press freedom is now classified as “critical”.
According to the RSF, most situation is “concentration of property (media), advertisers and funding stress and limited people’s pressure, absent or translucent.”
Most are closing
According to the data collected by RSF, 160 in 180 countries (88.9%), the media achieve steady financial results only with “difficulty” and many do not even achieve them.
“Furthermore, the media is shutting down due to financial difficulties in almost one -third of the world, such as the United States, Tunisia or Argentine.
The RSF lamented that the measured data of the financial indicator was “conserving their editorial independence and confirming their economic survival.”
“When the media faces financial difficulties, they enter a species to attract audiences on quality reports and may be victims of Oligarches and government officials,” the company said.
RSF Editorial Director Anne Bokande quoted in the report, “When journalists are poor, they have no ways to protect the enemy, false information and propaganda.”
According to the report, their media has been heavily closed in 34 countries, leading to the boycott of many journalists.
This was especially the case in Nicaragua, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, where economic difficulties intensify political stress effects.
Trump has reduced financing
In the United States, which has been declining in the last two years, the vast areas are becoming news.
Although it was opened only in January, US President Donald Trump has already intensified this trend for the second time, and false economic expectations are used to keep the magazines under pressure.
The sudden end of the United States Agency funds for the Global Media (USAGM), which has influenced many newsrooms, including the Voice of America and Radio Europa Livre/Radio LiberDade – suddenly lost access to reliable information.
Similarly, the US Agency has been freezing the US Agency for International Development (USID) to disrupt the US international cooperation, starting hundreds of media in a complex state of economic volatility and forced to close some – especially in Ukraine.
Large platforms absorb media recipes
These serious cuts in financing are an additional scam in the economy that has already impaired domain, which includes technical giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft.
These platforms are most unlawful, and generally realize the growth of advertising revenues that support journalism.
The total cost on social networks rose to $ 24.3 billion last year, with a growth of 14% compared to 2023.
In addition to the loss of advertising revenues that severely limit the media’s economy, the concentration of media ownership represents a serious threat to the plurality of the media and the plurality of the media.
In 46 countries, the indicator shows that the ownership of the media is concentrated and that in some cases, the state is completely controlled.
This is especially evident in Russia, where the Oligarches connected to the Press State or Kremlin, and in Hungary, the government will control the media through uneven distribution of state advertising, the RSF said.
It is also evident in countries that use “foreign impact” laws to suppress independent journalism such as Georgia, Tunisia, Peru and Hong Kong.
Even in countries with high pressure of press freedom, such as Australia, Canada, Czech Republic or France, media concentration is a matter of concern because it increases concerns about the independence of newsrooms.
More than half of countries and territories estimated by the Index (92 of 180), many interviewers have reported that media owners have limited “always” or “frequent” editorial product.
In Lebanon, India, India, Armenia and Bulgaria, many people are indebted to financing in 21 countries, including people who are close to the political or business world of the media, and in 21 countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, many respondents have always intervened in the editorial part of the media.
