US President Donald Trump oversees the “troubling aggravation” in our press freedom, a reporter without borders says.
Palestine has become the world’s most dangerous state for journalists during Israel’s Gaza War, with dozens of reporters likely likely have been killed in particular for their work, Media Freedom Watchdog said.
Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists in the first 18 months of the war, of which at least 42 were killed while working, a reporter without borders said as it released the 2025 World Press Freedom Index on Friday.
“Gaza journalists trapped in enclaves have no shelter and are lacking everything, including food and water,” said the Paris-based group, also known as the French acronym RSF.
“In the West Bank, journalists are routinely harassed and attacked by both settlers and Israeli forces, but after immunity for crimes committed by journalists became a new rule on October 7th, suppression reached new heights in a wave of arrests.”
Journalists suspected of cooperation with Israel are also hampered by work by Hamas and Islamic jihad, but the cybercrime law adopted by Palestinian authority limits freedom of press and freedom, the RSF said in its report.
Palestine ranked 163rd in press freedom in the latest index. This has been six drops since 2024.
Of the 180 jurisdictions, 112 of the 110 jurisdictions, press freedom fell, dropping the average score to a record low of 55 points, according to the report.
The US dropped two locations to a record low of 57, with WatchDog accusing President Donald Trump of overseeing “a nasty degradation of press freedom.”
“President Donald Trump was elected for a second term after a campaign in which he denigrated the press daily and poses an explicit threat to the media to weaponize the federal government,” the RSF said.
“His early moves on his second mission to politicize the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ban Associated Press from the White House and dismantle US global media agencies indicate that it is intended to endanger the country’s news outlets and follow his threats, and is about to establish a potential crisis in American journalism.”
Israel dropped 11 places to 112th, with a boundary-free reporter pointing to increasing restrictions on freedom of the press, multiple media and editorial independence since the start of the war in Gaza.
“Only journalists since 2021 who have worked at Channel 14, a media outlet that covers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from an advantageous perspective, have been allowed to interview with the country’s leaders who are denounced by the Israeli press for plot against him,” the group said.
“In 2024, the Minister of Communications called on the government to boycott Harletz, one of the few newspapers that criticize Netanyahu’s policies, including the massacre of civilians in Gaza.
Eritrea was the lowest jurisdiction, just behind North Korea and China.
Norway was first ranked for freedom of the press, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands and Sweden.
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