News Center- The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published its 2025 World Press Freedom Index, placing Türkiye at 159th out of 180 countries. Türkiye entered the “very serious” category this year.

Türkiye was ranked 99th out of 180 countries in 2022, 151st in 2016, 155th in 2017, 157th in 2018 and 2019, 154th in 2020, 153rd in 2021, 149th in 2022, 165th in 2023 and 158th in 2024.

“Although physical attacks against journalists are the most visible violations of press freedom, economic pressure is also a major, more insidious problem,” the Reporters Without Borders said in the index. “The economic indicator on the RSF World Press Freedom Index now stands at an unprecedented, critical low as its decline continued in 2025. As a result, the global state of press freedom is now classified as a ‘difficult situation’ for the first time in the history of the Index.”

“Guaranteeing freedom, independence and plurality in today’s media landscape requires stable and transparent financial conditions. Without economic independence, there can be no free press,” said RSF editorial director Anne Bocandé. “When news media are financially strained, they are drawn into a race to attract audiences at the expense of quality reporting, and can fall prey to the oligarchs and public authorities who seek to exploit them. When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press — those who champion disinformation and propaganda. The media economy must urgently be restored to a state that is conducive to journalism and ensures the production of reliable information, which is inherently costly. Solutions exist and must be deployed on a large scale. The media’s financial independence is a necessary condition for ensuring free, trustworthy information that serves the public interest.”

According to data collected by RSF for the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, in 160 out of the 180 countries assessed, media outlets achieve financial stability “with difficulty” or “not at all.”

News outlets are shutting down due to economic hardship in nearly a third of countries globally. This is the case in the United States (57th, down  2 places) Tunisia (129th, down 11 places) and Argentina (87th, down 21 places).

‘The situation in Palestine is disastrous’

The situation in Palestine (163rd) is disastrous. In Gaza, the Israeli army has destroyed newsrooms, killed nearly 200 journalists and imposed a total blockade on the strip for over 18 months. In Haiti (112th, down 18 places), the lack of political stability has also plunged the media economy into chaos.

34 countries stand out for the mass closures of their media outlets, which has led to the exile of journalists in recent years. This is especially true in Nicaragua (172nd, down 9 places), Belarus (166th), Iran (176th), Myanmar (169th), Sudan (156th), Azerbaijan (167th) and Afghanistan (175th), where economic difficulties compound the effects of political pressure.

“President Donald Trump’s second term has already intensified this trend as false economic pretexts are used to bring the press into line. This led to the abrupt end to funding for the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which affected several newsrooms, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,” the index said. “As a result, over 400 million citizens worldwide were suddenly deprived of access to reliable information.”