Press Freedom Under Siege

World Press Freedom Day arrives this year not as a celebration, but as a cry for help. Journalism — the bedrock of democratic accountability — is now rated “poor” in half of the world’s countries for the first time, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). This alarming milestone is more than just a statistic. It signals a world where the truth is increasingly endangered, and those who dare to report it are silenced — through laws, violence, or economic suffocation.
Nowhere is this decline more vivid than in South Asia. Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are all ranked among the bottom 35 countries, with press freedom labelled as “very serious.” In Pakistan, the passage of the 2025 amendment to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act has opened a new chapter of repression. By criminalising “false information” that may cause fear or unrest — without defining what that means — the state has granted itself broad power to censor, intimidate, and imprison. Journalists across the country have protested this draconian law, warning that it strikes at the heart of constitutional guarantees of free speech.
But legislation is only part of the story. Between May 2024 and April 2025, at least five journalists were killed in Pakistan, according to the Freedom Network. Internet shutdowns and social media blackouts, frequently deployed during political unrest, further restrict the public’s access to reliable information. In parallel, the economic strangulation of independent media continues. Government advertisements — a vital source of revenue — are selectively awarded to compliant outlets, turning financial dependence into editorial control. RSF has rightly warned that without financial independence, press freedom cannot survive.
This crisis is not limited to emerging democracies. In the United States, ranked 57th, the media is under siege from a different front. Budget cuts, newsroom closures, and layoffs are hollowing out local journalism. Meanwhile, political hostility towards the press has worsened under the second Trump administration, with independent voices being removed from the White House press pool and federal support for public media slashed. Even in Israel, war has become a tool of erasure — more than 200 journalists have died in the Gaza conflict, with entire newsrooms flattened.
This is a global reckoning. The mechanisms vary — laws, bullets, or bankruptcies — but the motive is constant: control the narrative. The fight for press freedom cannot be left to journalists alone. It requires public support, legal safeguards, and independent institutions. Because when the press is silenced, the public is blinded. And in darkness, democracy cannot survive.