PARIS (AFP) - Media rights group RSF warned Friday about “an alarming deterioration in press freedom” in the United States under President Donald Trump .
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which has been tracking press freedom for the last 23 years, said its main index had fallen to its lowest-ever level.
“For the first time in the history of the index, the conditions for practicing journalism are poor in half of the world’s countries and satisfactory in fewer than one in four,” an annual review of media freedom globally by the charity concluded.
RSF editorial director Anne Bocande highlighted the role of economic pressures in undermining fact-based reporting, with many independent outlets having to close because of funding difficulties.
After a fall of 11 places in 2024, the United States declined another two to 57th place on the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, one behind formerly war-torn Sierra Leone in west Africa.
“In the United States, Donald Trump’s second term as president has led to an alarming deterioration in press freedom, indicative of an authoritarian shift in government,” RSF said.
“His administration has weaponized institutions, cut support for independent media, and sidelined reporters.”
Large parts of the United States were now “news deserts”, RSF said.
Trump announced that he was considering legal action against The New York Times, in his latest attack on a media outlet.
He is also suing media group Paramount over a pre-election interview last year of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on its CBS channel.
Trump alleges it was edited to remove an embarrassing response, although many legal analysts view the case as baseless and likely to be dismissed or fail due to constitutional protections for freedom of the press.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media watchdog, also warned that press freedom in the United States was declining and it urged newsrooms to form a united front against the “rising tide of threats” facing them.