Greece Fares Worst in the EU for Media Freedom, RSF Report Says

Greece is once again at the bottom of the EU, faring worst when it comes to media freedom. Greece has also dropped to 89th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index—down from 88th place in 2024.

According to the Reporters Without Borders annual press freedom ranking, which was released Friday, Europe has the freest media in the world. However, Southern and Eastern Europe are lagging behind the rest of the continent, and the world overall is struggling.

Greece recorded the worst result in the 27-member European Union for the fourth consecutive year, coming in at 89 globally and scoring similarly to its Balkan neighbors such as Bosnia (86) and Serbia (96). RSF measured the country’s performance against five key indicators: political, economic, legislative, social and security.

The main reasons for Greece’s lackluster score include wiretapping of journalists by intelligence agencies using Predator spyware, government interference, intimidatory lawsuits and inadequate legal guardrails. Also, the unpunished murder of veteran crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz has drawn sharp condemnation from the European Parliament itself.

Safety remains a concern, with RSF noting that “The police regularly resort to violence and arbitrary bans to obstruct journalistic coverage of demonstrations and the refugee crisis on the Greek islands. Journalists have been the victims of physical attacks during sporting events and in front of their homes.”

Public trust is among the lowest in Europe, and female journalists regularly face sexism, the report adds.

Commenting on the annual RSF reports in the past, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has taken issue with RSF’s findings, saying at a public event that “I think there is no issue on press freedom in Greece. We have a vibrant press, journalists can write anything they want.”

The RSF Press Freedom Index paints a bleak picture for media freedom worldwide

For the first time since the inception of the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index in 2002, the organization finds that the conditions for practicing journalism are bad in half of the world’s countries, and that less than one percent of the world’s population lives in a country where press freedom is fully guaranteed.

The average score out of 100 fell below 55, with journalistic conditions classified as “difficult” or “very serious” in more than half of all countries assessed. Greece’s score has declined to 55.37.

The top 15 countries were all in Europe, with Norway scoring the highest, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.

Iran, Syria, China, North Korea and Eritrea were ranked the five worst countries in the world to be a journalist, with virtually non-existent press freedom. At the same time, in the Middle East dozens of journalists have been killed during Israel’s war on Gaza, the organization said.

President Donald Trump’s administration is bringing about a “troubling deterioration” through funding cuts to public media and foreign aid, RSF said, noting that the United States fell two places in 2025, to 57.