IDEA report links global democracy decline to 40-year low in freedom of the press

Author: Devin Windelspecht, MSc

September 25, 2025

International IDEA’s latest report is yet another datapoint that shows the rapid decline of press freedoms globally over the last few years. It necessitates an urgent call to action to protect press freedoms worldwide before they are irrecoverably eroded.

[Image source: EIU]

As global democracy reaches record lows worldwide, deteriorating press freedoms are a major driving force behind democratic decline, according to a recently published report by Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

The report found that 94 countries – or 54% of all those evaluated in the study – saw a decline in at least one metric of democracy compared to five years prior, while only 56, or 32% of countries, saw their performance improve. The report reflects a gradual decline in global democracy since 1991, when 56% of countries were improving, and especially since 2016, when the number of countries experiencing democratic decline eclipsed those improving for the first time. 

The metric that declined the most over the five-year period was press freedom, with one in four countries experiencing a decline, the most since International IDEA’s dataset began in 1975. These included not only authoritarian countries and those experiencing conflict but also countries with a tradition of strong press freedoms, including Finland, Portugal, Uruguay and Sweden. 

The report did not cite any single cause for the deterioration, and instead pointed to a patchwork of country-specific trends. In New Zealand, for instance, the report drew attention to the rapid consolidation of the country’s media space, stating that over three in four journalists now work for one of five employers. 

In South Korea, meanwhile, defamation cases against journalists and raids on media outlets under the administration of South Korea’s previous president, Yoon Suk Yeol, resulted in the country witnessing the fourth highest decline in press freedoms over the five-year period of the report.

Other countries experiencing declining press freedom included not only authoritarian countries like Belarus, El Salvador, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Russia, but also European democracies such as Italy and Slovakia, which have been accused of spying on journalists and closing a public broadcaster for political purposes, respectively. 

Not all countries experienced declines. In the Americas, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Honduras bucked global trends to significantly increase the freedom of their media ecosystems, while in Europe, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Moldova and Poland also saw press freedoms advance. Other countries noted as improving include Fiji, Sri Lanka, Syria and Zambia.

In the U.S., the second administration of President Donald Trump was not evaluated in the five-year period of the IDEA International report, which concluded in 2024. But in its introduction, the report specifically calls out worrying trends for democracy and freedom of expression in the United States, including attempts to limit academic freedoms and restrictions on the media’s access to the government. 

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Glossary 

• Authoritarian – countries that do not have free political systems, including but not limited to free and fair elections, freedom of speech and expression, and press freedoms. These countries often have a single leader or small group of people making decisions without checks on their power. 

• Buck trends – behave in a way that is contrary to how the majority is behaving. 

• Consolidation – combining many smaller and separate things, such as companies, into larger versions of fewer numbers. 

• Dataset – a collection of information. 

• Defamation – accusations that a work of journalism or speech is knowably false and spread with the specific intent to undermine or harm a person or entity. 

• Deteriorate – decrease in quality, often quickly. 

• Eclipse – overcome. 

• Eroded – worn down over time. 

• Freedom of Expression – includes but is not limited to press freedom to allow all people living in a country to be able to speak freely without fear of censorship or punishment. 

• Irrecoverably – unable to be repaired or restored. 

• Metric – a datapoint used to measure something in a study. 

• Necessitate – requiring action. 

• Patchwork – several different events or happenings that do not have a common shared origin or pattern. 

• Press Freedom – the ability for independent journalists to report without fear of censorship, harassment, or violence.