Press freedom in the US has ‘deteriorated dramatically’ in the past year, the watchdog said

Bogota, Colombia — BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Press freedom in the Americas will suffer a “dramatic decline” in 2025, a regional watchdog said Tuesday in an assessment of the profession’s conditions in 23 countries across the Western Hemisphere.

The Miami-based Inter-American Press Association, or IAPA, has been publishing an annual freedom of speech index since 2020, known as the Chapultepec Index. It assesses how the US, Canada and Latin American countries do to protect media freedom.

The agency said in its annual report that it was one of the region’s worst years, with homicides, arbitrary arrests and impunity for crimes against journalists.

The 2025 index ranks Venezuela and Nicaragua as countries with “no freedom of speech,” while Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and El Salvador fall into the “highly restricted” category. Other democracies, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Panama, are ranked as countries with “least restrictions” on free speech.

The United States ranks as a country with “restrictions” on freedom of speech, with 170 attacks against journalists in 2025, the IAPA said. Attacks during coverage of procedures undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raised concerns about journalistic freedom, the report added.

The researchers found that in the US there is “poor government action against disinformation, as well as government actions aimed at limiting free expression and access to information.” He said US President Donald Trump and other White House officials had “tainted” media outlets critical of the administration.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, another group that tracks attacks on press freedom around the world, said 13 journalists were killed in Latin America last year, more than double the seven murders recorded in 2024.

Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America coordinator, said press freedom and democracy in Latin America had recently suffered a “major setback.”

“What CPJ has observed in the region is deliberate attacks on the press by public agencies with the intention of delegitimizing its work,” Zahar said in a WhatsApp message. Many countries in the region are using anti-terrorism laws, laws against cybercrimes and laws against non-profit organizations to criminalize the work of journalists, he said.

IAPA notes that attacks on journalists in the region have increased as “authoritarian presidents” have emerged in various countries. In Venezuela, it said, “self-censorship” is the norm in local media, which did not provide any coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, fearing government reprisals.

Censorship has been “institutionalized” in Nicaragua, the report said, with a constitutional reform that placed all branches of government under the control of the president.

The report classifies El Salvador as a country with “high restrictions” on freedom of speech, with government officials attempting to intimidate journalists with lawsuits and criminal investigations. It said 180 attacks against media workers were recorded in the Central American country between May and July.

There were 290 acts of aggression against journalists in Ecuador last year, including four murders committed by criminal gangs. A journalist was shot in the shoulder by police while covering a protest organized by a local community.

Haiti was included in the annual report for the first time and ranked as one of the countries with the least press freedom in the Americas. It noted that two journalists were killed in 2024 by gang members who attacked a hospital reopening ceremony in Port-au-Prince.

Furthermore, the report said crimes against journalists go unpunished in Haiti, where gangs control large areas of the capital and have waged a campaign of intimidation against media workers and local residents.

IAPA has more than 1,300 member news organizations and promotes press freedom across America.

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