WORLD Press Freedom Day has arrived under a dark cloud, with journalism in dire straits across the globe. According to Reporters Without Borders, 2025 marks the first time that journalism is rated “poor” in half the world’s countries — an unprecedented low in global press freedom. South Asia reflects this troubling trend vividly: Pakistan ranks 158th out of 180, India 151st, and Bangladesh 149th — all classified as having “very serious” constraints on media.

In Pakistan, the pressure is acute. Legal repression continues to intensify. The 2025 amendment to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act criminalises “false information” that causes fear or unrest — a vague provision widely seen as a tool to muzzle dissent. Journalists have protested this law nationwide, calling it a blow to constitutional protections of free speech. Meanwhile, physical threats remain ever-present. According to Freedom Network, Pakistan recorded at least five journalist killings between May 2024 and April this year. Internet shutdowns and social media blackouts — such as those imposed after political unrest in 2023 — continue to be deployed to stifle access to information.

Adding to these pressures is the severe economic decline facing independent media. With slowing revenues and rising costs, independent reporting has been under siege because of selective doling out of government advertisements, which are used to reward and punish media houses. RSF warns that without financial independence, editorial integrity cannot survive, and without that, the public loses its access to truthful reporting.

The global picture is no less grim. In the US, ranked 57th, press freedom is eroding under economic and political pressures. Journalists are contending with media layoffs, newsroom closures, and in some cases, police overreach — as seen in the Marion County Record raid. The second Trump administration has intensified hostility towards the press, slashing media funding and booting out critical outlets from the White House press pool. In Israel, ranked 112th, the Gaza conflict has had devastating consequences for journalists. Over 200 media workers have been killed in 18 months, and newsrooms destroyed, leading RSF to comment at one point: “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed.”

As 2025 marks a global reckoning for press freedom, one truth stands out: no country is immune. Developing countries demonstrate how repression, violence and legal harassment can cripple journalism. But even so-called established democracies like the US are backsliding. The threats may differ, but the impulse to control narratives is universal. Defending press freedom now demands more than rhetoric; it requires legal protections, independent institutions and a public that refuses to accept silence. Journalism is democracy’s first line of defence, and it must endure.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2025