The Philippines improved to 116 from 134 last year in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, which is based on monitoring by the international nonprofit organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF, or Reporters Without Borders).
However, despite the marked improvement, the country is still in the bottom half of the index that lists a total of 180 countries, and it remains in a “difficult” situation with Filipino journalists facing constant threats of violence and harassment.
RSF defines press freedom as the “ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest, independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.”
Arthur Rochereau of the RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau noted zero media killings reported in the past year, which he attributed to the improvement of the Philippines’ ranking.
“The RSF index is a snapshot of the situation of the press for one year – the fact there was no murder of journalists… Also, the fact that the current administration is less aggressive towards the media than the former Duterte administration also improves the situation a little bit,” he added.
But the country is still categorized as having an “overall very difficult situation,” he said, with journalists facing the risk of harassment and violence both online and offline. “There are strong systemic issues explaining why the Philippines is still ranked at the bottom of the index. The issue of red tagging, for instance, is a strategy from authorities to label journalists that are critical to the administration and to the army as terrorists,” said Rochereau.
At the top of the World Press Freedom Index is Norway, followed by Estonia, and the Netherlands.
When it comes to important issues such as press freedom, improvements are always welcome, especially in the Philippines, where it has perennially been a problem. However, based on the ranking, we remain at the bottom half, which quantifies the amount of work that remains to be done before our journalists can do their work without having to worry about harassment, persecution, and even their lives. Hopefully our government manages to keep up the momentum and keep its eye on the goal of continuous and steady improvement when it comes to the freedom of the press in the country.*
