May 2 (UPI) — The nonprofit journalism organization Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, announced Friday that press freedom is at its lowest level in history, and the United States is at its all-time low as well.
The organization released its RSF World Press Freedom Index and map, which showed the United States has gone down two places to a rank of 57th.
RSF noted that local journalism has suffered due to the economic downturn, and that more than 60% of American journalists surveyed in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania find it “difficult to earn a living wage as a journalist,” and 75% feel that “the average media outlet struggles for economic viability.”
The United States took a 28-place drop, indicating that the American press operates in an environment where hostility is on the rise.
Part of the problem is Trump administration funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which has impacted newsrooms in outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which in turn has deprived over 400 million citizens around the globe of access to reliable information.
The pause on funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development has also had a negative bearing on journalism, as hundreds of news outlets that relied on USAID funding have been weakened, which has led some newsrooms to entirely shut down. One nation where journalism has been particularly affected by the USAID cuts is Ukraine, where the state of the press has been deemed “problematic.”
Of the factors RSF uses to determine its World Press Freedom Index, financial conditions are considered the main reason the overall world score has dropped to its all-time low this year.
Countries under conflict have all suffered, such as Ukraine, which has dropped to 62nd, but Palestine has fallen to 163rd as Israel has reportedly destroyed newsrooms in Gaza and allegedly killed close to 200 journalists.
Europe leads in the regional rankings with the European Union and Balkans zone at the top, with Norway placed at the very top of the list, and is considered the only country in the world to have a “good” rating when all the factors used to determine the World Press Freedom Index are measured.
Norway has been the top nation on the RSF index for nine consecutive years, followed by Estonia that climbed into second place, the Netherlands at third and Sweden in fourth.