\n<\/p>\n
The United States has fallen to a \u201chistoric low\u201d in the Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, annual press freedom tracker, continuing a decade-long decline, the organisation has said.<\/p>\n
The report on Thursday recorded a\u00a0global drop in press freedom indicators in 2025, with, for the first time, more than half of the world\u2019s countries labelled as \u201cdifficult\u201d or \u201cvery serious\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n While the US, during the first year of US President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, remained in the \u201cproblematic\u201d category, it dropped seven spaces from 57th in the world to 64th. Norway led the list, with Eritrea ranked lowest among 180 countries.<\/p>\n In a statement, Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF\u2019s North America office, said the US was experiencing a \u201cpress freedom crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump and his administration have carried out a coordinated war on press freedom since the day he took office, and we will live with the consequences for years to come,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cOur message is clear: Protect legal rights, ensure accountability for attacks on media professionals, and support independent media to restore American press freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n The report pointed to both Trump administration policies and the wider consolidation of media companies in the US, which critics say opens the door to stifling certain points of view.<\/p>\n That has included Skydance Media\u2019s acquisition of Paramount Global, which includes CBS News. Skydance is owned by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is a confidant of Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n Paramount Skydance is also currently acquiring Warner Bros, which owns CNN.<\/p>\n All told, just six companies control most US media: Comcast, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount Skydance, Sony, and Amazon.<\/p>\n While Trump has long had an adversarial relationship with journalists, press freedom observers say the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has accelerated pressure on media figures and journalists during the president\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n In March, FCC chair Brendan Carr said he would revoke the licences of broadcasters that are \u201crunning hoaxes and news distortions\u201d, and that do not \u201coperate in the public interest\u201d in their reporting on the US-Israel war with Iran. Trump said he was \u201cthrilled\u201d by Carr\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n Carr has also threatened to revoke the licenses of broadcasters for their coverage of Trump\u2019s immigration policies, which critics say can have a chilling effect on local news organisations.<\/p>\n The effort has extended to television talk show hosts, who have been threatened by the FCC over jokes.<\/p>\n Most recently, Carr announced an investigation into several ABC channels.<\/p>\n That came days after the network\u2019s flagship late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, made a joke about the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD).<\/p>\n Kimmel had quipped that First Lady Melania Trump had the \u201cglow of an expectant widow\u201d before the event.<\/p>\n Days later, a gunman attempted to storm the WHCD in Washington, DC, which Trump was attending for the first time. The Trumps later connected Kimmel\u2019s joke to the attack, calling for Kimmel\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n Kimmel has said the joke was about the 79-year-old president and the 56-year-old first lady\u2019s \u201cage difference\u201d and not a call for violence.<\/p>\n Critics of the FCC\u2019s move included Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who said he does \u201cnot believe the FCC should operate as the speech police\u201d.<\/p>\n The White House has repeatedly called Trump the most \u201ctransparent\u201d president in US history, pointing to his regular news conferences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The United States has fallen to a \u201chistoric low\u201d in the Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, annual press freedom tracker, continuing a decade-long decline, the organisation has said. The report on Thursday recorded a\u00a0global drop in press freedom indicators in 2025, with, for the first time, more than half of the world\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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