STOCKHOLM
\nPress freedoms worldwide have declined significantly over the past five years to hit their lowest level in 50 years, a report by a democracy think tank showed Thursday.
\nAfghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar \u2014 already among the poorest performers in press freedoms \u2014 posted the biggest falls, the report by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said.
\nThe fourth-biggest drop was in South Korea, it added, citing \u201ca spike in defamation cases initiated by the government and its political allies against journalists, and raids on journalists\u2019 residences\u201d.
\n\u201cThe current state of democracy in the world is concerning,\u201d IDEA Secretary General Kevin Casas-Zamora, told AFP.
\nMore than half of countries in the world (54%), registered a drop in one of the five key democracy indicators between 2019 and 2024, the report said.
\n\u201cThe most important finding in our report is the very acute deterioration in press freedom around the world,\u201d Casas-Zamora said.
\nBetween 2019 and 2024, it saw \u201cthe biggest drop over the past 50 years\u201d.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health,\u201d he said.
\nPress freedoms declined in 43 countries across all continents, including 15 in Africa and 15 in Europe.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a toxic brew that is coming together, which involves, on the one hand, heavy-handed interventions on the part of governments,\u201d some of them \u201clegacies of what happened during the pandemic\u201d.
\nOn the other hand, \u201cyou have the very negative impact of disinformation, some of which is real disinformation and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to clamp down on press freedoms\u201d.
\nThe think tank is concerned about the consolidation of traditional media worldwide, as well as the \u201cdisappearance in many countries of local media which plays a very important role in supporting a democratic debate\u201d, Casas-Zamora said.
\nThe report only covers the period 2019 to 2024 and does not include the first effects of US President Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House in January.
\nBut \u201csome of the things that we saw during the election at the end of last year and in the first few months of 2025 are fairly disturbing\u201d, Casas-Zamora said.
\n\u201cSince what happens in the US has this ability to go global, this does not bode well for democracy globally,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKHOLM Press freedoms worldwide have declined significantly over the past five years to hit their lowest level in 50 years, a report by a democracy think tank showed Thursday. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar \u2014 already among the poorest performers in press freedoms \u2014 posted the biggest falls, the report by the Stockholm-based International Institute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-502344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n