Concerns for press freedom across the Commonwealth

The past year has been a bad one for journalists and reporting the news. According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2025 press freedom index, the global situation is at its worst since the organisation first published its rankings in 2002.

RSF said the economic indicator was at an “unprecedented, critical low” – with intense pressure on news outlets because of concentrated ownership, pressure from advertisers and financial backers, and a lack of public aid – and classified the global situation as “difficult” for the first time. “Without economic independence, there can be no free press,” said Anne Bocondé, RSF’s editorial director. “When news media are financially strained, they are drawn into a race to attract audiences at the expense of quality reporting.”

Large parts of the world are becoming media deserts, after the Trump administration abruptly stopping funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Physical attacks have also become worse: at least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year – the most since the Committee to Protect Journalists first began recording attacks on the press in 1992. Nearly two-thirds of them were Palestinians killed in Gaza but among the most dangerous places for journalists were several Commonwealth member states.

Foremost was Pakistan, where a total of 94 journalists have been killed since 1998, while 73 journalists have lost their lives over that time in India. The annual report of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) names seven media workers killed in Pakistan last year, five killed in Bangladesh, and three in India.

So it is no surprise that among the 41 countries in the RSF index’s lowest category of “very serious” are six Commonwealth states, with Pakistan ranked lowest in 158th place out of 180 (down from 152 last year). The others in the roll call of media shame are, in reverse order, India, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Uganda and Sri Lanka.

Neither is any member of the Commonwealth among the seven countries listed as having a “good” press freedom situation. This has been the case since 2021, when Jamaica and New Zealand were among those happy few. Now you have to go down to New Zealand in 16th place to find a Commonwealth member. Also deemed merely “satisfactory” are Trinidad and Tobago (19 – one place above Britain), Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, Namibia, Australia and Fiji.

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India rose eight places, but only to 151. RSF said “press freedom is in crisis in the world’s largest democracy”, with the media facing an “unofficial state of emergency” since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. In examples of what has become known as “Godi media” (a play on the prime minister’s name and the word for “lapdogs”) – media outlets mix populism and pro-BJP propaganda. One powerful supporter of Modi, the Reliance tycoon Mukesh Ambani, owns more than 70 media outlets followed by 800 million Indians, while another tycoon ally, Gautam Adani, bought the leading channel NDTV in 2022. Supporters of Hindutva, the ethno-nationalist ideology of far-right Hindus, whip up mobs against critics branded as “traitors”.

While three Indian journalists are currently detained and one has been killed this year, many media workers most fear the online and physical threats from supporters of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For example, RSF noted how the Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub had been targeted by the government “manipulating the justice system … to silence an annoying journalist”. This, it said, had been done by circulating false information, which then prompted complaints by BJP supporters, which were in turn then investigated by government agencies, with personal information leaked that led to threats to her safety.

Most respondents to RSF’s survey in Rwanda (146, down two on last year) said media owners “always” interfered editorially. RSF called it “one of the countries where the press is most tightly controlled by the state”. TV is run by the authoritarian government or owners who belong to the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front. Although Rwanda has a population of 13 million, there are very few newspapers, investigative journalism is rare, and journalists publishing sensitive content online have received harsh sentences. “Arbitrary arrests and detentions have increased in recent years,” RSF said, “and journalists working online also face intense repression.”

In Europe, Cyprus slid from 65 to 77, with RSF’s social indicator showing the biggest drop. RSF notes that the division of the island has a significant impact, adding: “The Cyprus issue is taboo and all journalists are expected to have a duty of loyalty to the government on this subject. Reporters who question the official line are often labelled ‘traitors’.”

The UK is at 20 this year, up from 23 due to the movement of other countries around it, RSF said. However, it noted “alarming attacks on Iranian journalists exiled in the UK, lawsuits aimed at gagging journalists, widespread job cuts, and low public trust in media”.

Fiona O’Brien, RSF’s UK director, said: “There have been some positive developments in the UK this year, including growing political consensus on the need for anti-Slapp legislation and the release of Julian Assange, though these have been offset by transnational attacks on journalists, worrying cases of police surveillance of journalists, and the targeting of journalists during riots in summer 2024 … concerns around concentration of ownership, job losses and declining profitability.”

Malta, where the country’s leading investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was assassinated in 2017, has edged up to 67 from 73, though the high-profile murder has thrown a long shadow over the media. RSF said the government  has been “reluctant” to implement the reforms called for by a public enquiry into the killing and has fought freedom of information requests by the media.

Among the stronger performers, New Zealand lost one of its two main free-to-air news channels, Newshub, when its US owner Discovery shut down its news output, with the loss of 300 jobs, and on the same day the state broadcaster TVNZ said it would end a long-running current affairs programme and several news bulletins. In November, meanwhile, the NZME group said it would close 14 newspapers deemed unprofitable.

In other highly ranked countries, such as Australia (up 10 places to 29) and Canada (21 from 14 last year), national media being in the hands of the few has become a cause for concern. In Australia, in what RSF refers to as “hyperconcentration” of ownership, just three groups dominate the media landscape.

South Africa, a country that guarantees press freedom and has a long tradition of robust investigative journalism, has seen its independent media face difficulties, with Cyril Ramaphosa’s government often accused of favouring certain media outlets through ad spending. Nevertheless, the country has risen from 38 to 27 last year.

Malaysia jumped to 88 from 107 last year. RSF said that although a “handful of politically connected conglomerates control most media groups” and the government can use several pieces of “draconian legislation”, including the colonial-era Sedition Act, to curb online outlets and restrict print media, “these restrictions are resisted by a vibrant civil society” and a freedom of information bill has been agreed in principle.

Also in Africa, Nigeria fell 10 places to 122, while neighbouring Cameroon came in at 131 (down just one). In Kenya, which dropped by 15 to 117, there was a good illustration of the financial pressures on independent media when the telecoms firm Safaricom stopped advertising in the Nation after the newspaper exposed the company’s role in surveillance of people’s communications.

Senegal rose an impressive 20 places to 74, largely on the back of several positive reforms to the sector and fewer arrests and attacks on journalists under the new government of Bassirou Diomaye Faye. However, Uganda fell 15 places to 143 as the authoritarian government of Yoweri Museveni  increasingly targets journalists, who “face intimidation and violence on a nearly daily basis”, the RSF said.

At October’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, member states reaffirmed their commitment to freedom of expression, recognising the importance of an independent media and pledging to protect it, by signing up to the Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance. As the Commonwealth Journalists Association’s William Horsley wrote in December: “The global assault against free speech mirrors a global slide towards the breakdown in the rule of law. The Commonwealth must now back up its words with decisive actions.”

Oren Gruenbaum is a member of the Round Table editorial board.