LONDON — As the world marks World Press Freedom Day this weekend, perceptions of media freedom worldwide show little movement, remaining near the levels recorded each year since 2010. Overall, a median of 64% of adults across 131 countries in 2025 said they believe the media in their country have a lot of freedom, while 30% disagreed.
At the country and territory level, people’s belief that their media have a lot of freedom ranges from of 93% in Finland to 26% in the State of Palestine.
Comparing the country-level results with various independent evaluations of press freedom generally shows strong relationships between people’s perceptions of local press freedom and objective standards in democratic societies. By contrast, public opinion is often out of step with independent measures of media freedom in autocratic countries.
European Countries Top Global Rankings for Perceived Press Freedom
All 10 countries with the highest perceptions of national media freedom in 2025 are in Europe. Nordic countries — Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland — occupy the top five spots. In all of the top 10, more than 80% of adults say the media in their country have a lot of freedom.
By contrast, the countries ranking lowest for perceived media freedom are more geographically varied. While much of Europe ranks highly, Bulgaria and Greece are notable exceptions — the only European countries among the bottom 10, alongside four nations from sub-Saharan Africa, three from the Middle East and North Africa, and Kazakhstan.
Hungary, Hong Kong Lead Declines in Perceptions of Media Freedom
Since 2010, when 童颜视频 first asked this question globally, perceptions of media freedom have increased by double digits in 16 countries, while they have declined by double digits in 33. The global median has remained broadly stable over this period, though it has never returned to its 2010 and 2012 peak of 67%, three percentage points above the 2025 figure.
Hungary leads the world for the largest decrease in perceived media freedom since 2010, dropping from 87% just before now-outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orb谩n came to power to 45% in 2025. Perceptions of media freedom in Hong Kong have fallen by 34 points over 15 years. Taiwan (-19 pts.) also ranks among the 10 largest declines globally.
Greece (-30 pts.) and Bulgaria (-20 pts.) also feature in the list of countries that have seen the largest declines in perceived media freedom since 2010, alongside Spain (-19 pts.) and Canada (-18 pts.).
U.S. Perceptions of Media Freedom Dip
Three in four U.S. adults (75%) in 2025 think the U.S. media have a lot of freedom, among the lowest totals measured in the past 15 years and statistically tied with the other low point of 78% in 2023. This year also marks one of the few times the U.S. has been statistically tied with, rather than ahead of, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in these perceptions.
Since 2022, Americans’ perceptions that the press in their country has a lot of freedom have fallen 11 points (from 86%), compared with a one-point decline in the median among OECD countries. While this decline has been uneven — the measure rebounded slightly in 2024 before dipping again in 2025 — only three other countries have seen larger absolute declines in perceived media freedom than the U.S. since 2022: Ukraine (-18 pts.), Pakistan (-18 pts.) and Morocco (-15 pts.).
External Measures of Media Freedom Show Rising Pressures, Despite Stability in Public Opinion
The long-term stability in global perceptions of media freedom contrasts with growing pressures on such freedoms. Since 2013, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index has charted a decline in media freedom. For the first time in 2025, the RSF index rated half of 180 countries as “difficult” or “very serious” for practicing journalism, a historical first and up significantly since the pandemic.
The RSF Press Freedom Index combines expert opinion with other indicators, such as the number of journalists killed or imprisoned, or the number of outlets forced to close. In 2025, it cited economic pressure as a key component of declining media freedom, with many outlets struggling to balance editorial independence with economic survival.
The increase in countries scoring poorly on press freedoms has occurred even as freedoms more broadly have been compromised. According to Freedom House, which looks at a wider range of freedoms, such as political rights and civil liberties, global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025.
Links Between Perceptions of Media and External Evaluations Vary by Political System
At the country level, there is a positive association between people's perceptions of media freedom and their country’s RSF index score. Countries that rank highest for perceptions of media freedom, including Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, also rank among the highest on external indicators of press freedom. In all of these countries, which score 87 or above on the RSF index, at least 90% of adults say the media have a lot of freedom.
On the other hand, the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and several other former Soviet States (including Russia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan) have similar views about the media climate in their countries — with between 50% and 70% saying they have a lot of freedom — yet the RSF index rates them very differently. Whereas the Baltics receive high ratings for press freedom, all scoring above 80 on the index, the other former Soviet States all score below 40.
Media freedom perceptions also relate to the V-Dem Institute’s Liberal Democracy Index, which classifies countries as democratic or autocratic based on several elements of their political systems, such as voting rights, elections, personal freedoms and constraints on the executive.
Layering in V-Dem’s measure of democracy, it becomes clear that public views of media freedom are closely associated with the RSF index in democratic countries (r=0.58), but share no meaningful relationship (r=-0.06) in autocratic ones. People in less democratic countries, where media are heavily restricted, may have fewer reference points for media freedom than those in democracies, who are often more attuned to its erosion.
Bottom Line
People remain just as likely to think the media in their country has a lot of freedom as at any point in the past 15 years. This has occurred even as RSF has flagged more countries as difficult places for journalists and independent media to operate. The countries where media freedom is under the most pressure tend to be less democratic; and in many of these, public opinion often contrasts with external measures of freedom.
Ahead of World Press Freedom Day, these data suggest that the erosion of press freedom is, for large parts of the world, happening below the threshold of public awareness.
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