Estonia climbs to second in global press freedom rankings, Czechia makes top ten

Estonia has surged to second place in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, its best-ever result and the highest ranking among EU countries.

Estonia’s ranking in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index is the highest ever achieved by a Central and Eastern European (CEE) country since the index’s inception in 2002. This milestone underscores Estonia’s longstanding commitment to press freedom and its consistent upward trajectory.

Estonia has steadily climbed the index: 6th in 2024, 8th in 2023, and 12th in 2018.  This progression reflects the country’s robust legal protections for journalists, a media landscape characterised by minimal political interference, and strong public trust in media institutions

The Baltic country’s rise from eighth in 2024 to second this year reflects its consistent performance across all five RSF indicators: political independence, legal environment, journalist safety, economic resilience, and sociocultural context.

RSF credited Estonia’s strong digital media infrastructure and minimal political interference, though noted concern over the concentration of ownership among just a few media groups.

Journalists face ‘difficult situation’ globally

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the latest index on 3 May, warning that global press freedom has entered a “difficult situation” for the first time.

Czechia also made a major leap, climbing from 17th to 10th. The country was praised for improvements in transparency and recent government steps to strengthen public media independence, following increased funding and less politicised oversight.

Poland posted another of the region’s biggest gains, jumping from 57th to 31st. The change followed the defeat of the right-wing, nationalist PiS government in late 2023, which RSF had repeatedly criticised for undermining editorial independence and turning public media into a propaganda tool. Since then, RSF noted a fall in hate campaigns against journalists and a shift in the regulatory environment.

Slovakia slumped from 29th to 38th, its worst ranking in over a decade. The decline was driven by concerns over government hostility towards critical media and stalled investigations into the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

Hungary rose modestly from 72nd to 68th, though RSF highlighted the country’s extreme concentration of pro-government media ownership, state advertising bias, and politicised regulation. The report noted that journalists in Hungary operate in an “almost totally captured media ecosystem”.

Mixed picture for press in Balkans

Elsewhere in the region, Slovenia dropped from 50th to 55th amid ongoing tension between politicians and reporters. Croatia rose to 39th, up from 42nd, while Romania and Bulgaria both suffered mild declines, ranking 61st and 59th respectively.

In the Western Balkans, North Macedonia stood at 36th and Montenegro at 40th, both stable. Serbia, at 98th, and Albania, at 99th, remain in RSF’s “difficult” category, facing harassment, lack of transparency, and political interference. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 83rd, with press freedom limited by entrenched ethnic divisions and uneven institutional protections.

Greece remains the worst-performing EU country at 89th, largely due to ongoing surveillance scandals and impunity in cases involving attacks on journalists.

The RSF index assessed 180 countries and territories using a methodology covering legal, political, economic and social environments for journalism, as well as safety. The watchdog said that economic fragility, especially closures of local outlets and staff cuts, now poses the leading threat to global media freedom.