The countries with the most press freedom in 2026, according to Reporters Without Borders

A free press is easy to take for granted until it disappears, and Reporters Without Borders says it is disappearing in much of the world. Its 2026 index finds the average score across 180 countries and territories at its lowest in 25 years, and 100 of them saw their scores decline this year. For the first time more than half, 52.2%, have a "difficult" or "very serious" situation for journalists, up from 13.7% in 2002. RSF's Christian Mihr has said only one in 100 people worldwide now has access to a robust, diverse and healthy media landscape.

RSF's World Press Freedom Index, released April 30, 2026, scores each country from zero to 100 across five indicators: political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety. Only scores of 85 and above count as "good," and only seven countries clear that bar, all in Europe. The U.S. ranks 64th, down seven places from 2025, while the UK is 18th and France is 25th. China, North Korea and Eritrea sit at the bottom, in 178th, 179th and 180th place. Each slide below gives a country's score, how it has moved and what RSF says about the conditions around it.

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Norway tops the index with 92.72, first place for the 10th year in a row and for the 16th time in the index's 25 editions, according to RSF Finland. Its score is up from 92.31 in 2025, and it is the only country above 90.

Norway's lead is built on strength across the board. It ranks first on four of the five indicators, scoring 95.98 on political context, 87.22 on economic context, 91.76 on legal framework and 96.46 on safety, and second on sociocultural context at 92.19. Economic context is its lowest-scoring indicator, and even so it is the highest economic score anywhere in the world. RSF averages the five indicators, each scored from zero to 100 and weighted equally, to produce the final number.

The gap between Norway and the rest of the field is wide. Second-place Netherlands scores 88.92, 3.8 points behind, and Norway is 7.72 points above the 85 threshold that RSF uses for a "good" rating. Europe is the only region with countries above that line, and RSF estimates that less than 1% of the world's population lives in a country with "good" press freedom.

The results come in a year when RSF says the legal indicator fell more than any other, with the criminalization of journalism spreading through national security laws, abusive lawsuits known as SLAPPs and surveillance. Norway's 91.76 on legal framework is the best score in the index on that measure.

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The Netherlands ranks second with 88.92, up from third place and 88.64 in 2025. It moves ahead of Estonia this year, and its climb is one of the more dramatic in the index's recent history.

The Netherlands' ranks over the past eight editions run fourth in 2019, fifth in 2020, sixth in 2021, a sharp drop to 28th in 2022 with a score of 77.93, sixth in 2023, fourth in 2024, third in 2025 and now second. RSF changed its methodology in 2022, combining a questionnaire for press freedom specialists with a quantitative tally of abuses against journalists, so comparisons across that line aren't strictly like for like.

RSF's regional analysis for Europe and Central Asia says EU countries have generally kept their leading places, but that the overall picture is mixed. Despite the entry into force of the European Media Freedom Act, several EU member states are still in breach of the legislation, according to RSF. Estonia, for example, slipped from second to third this year because of political pressure on the press.

The Netherlands is one of the seven countries RSF rates "good," with a score 3.92 points above the line. It also gained ground in a year when RSF says press freedom declined in 100 of 180 countries, which puts it in the minority of countries that didn't see a decline.

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Estonia ranks third with 88.54, down from second place and 89.46 in 2025. RSF says directly that Estonia slipped from second to third "due to political pressure on the press," the example it gives in its European analysis of how pressure can cost a high-ranking country ground even while it stays in the top tier.

The country's path has been uneven. Estonia ranked 11th in 2019, 14th in 2020 and 15th in 2021, with a score of 84.75 in the last of those years. It then jumped to fourth in 2022 at 88.83, slipped to eighth in 2023 at 85.31 and sixth in 2024 at 86.44, before reaching second in 2025. ERR News, Estonia's public broadcaster, reported this year's move as a fall to third place.

Transparency International's corruption index offers a parallel from the same country. Estonia scores 76 on the 2025 corruption index, and Transparency International says its long-term improvement reflects sustained momentum with reforms, strengthened oversight institutions and broad political consensus in favor of clean governance, often supported by digitalization of public services. The two indexes measure different things, but both place Estonia near the top.

RSF's score for Estonia sits 3.54 points above the "good" threshold of 85.

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Denmark ranks fourth with 88.47, up two places from sixth in 2025, when it scored 86.93. It passes Sweden and Finland this year, and it finishes just 0.07 points behind Estonia in third place.

Denmark is one of four Nordic countries in the top six, which the regional news site NordiskPost describes as a global benchmark. Norway is first, Denmark fourth, Sweden fifth and Finland sixth, while Iceland is 12th. All four of the leading Nordic countries are in RSF's "good" category, which requires a score of 85 or higher. NordiskPost noted that Denmark and Sweden remain very close in the ranking and that high rankings don't remove structural vulnerabilities.

Denmark's improvement comes in a year when RSF counted declines in 100 of 180 countries. The organization says the legal indicator had the sharpest worldwide decline, falling in more than 60% of countries, including in the European Union, where laws aren't applied evenly.

A rise of two places can come from a small change in score. Denmark's score is up 1.54 points from last year while Sweden's is down 0.52 and Finland's is down 0.96, so part of the move reflects its neighbors slipping rather than a large gain of its own.

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Sweden ranks fifth with 87.61, down one place from fourth in 2025, when it scored 88.13. Its score is down 0.52 points from last year, and it sits 0.86 points behind Denmark, with which it is closely matched.

Sweden is one of the four Nordic countries in RSF's "good" category. Its score is 2.61 points above the 85-point threshold, a cushion about a third the size of Norway's.

RSF's analysis of the index points to the legal environment as the dimension declining fastest worldwide. According to commentary on the 2026 results, that decline runs through SLAPPs, national security laws and the use of surveillance software against journalists, all areas that the European Media Freedom Act and the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive are formally meant to cover. RSF says that, despite the Media Freedom Act entering into force, several EU states are still in breach of the law.

The global comparison shows how rare Sweden's position is. RSF counts 42 countries in its "very serious" category, and at the other end of the scale only seven countries score 85 or higher. Sweden also appears in Transparency International's 2025 corruption index discussion as a high scorer, with 80 points, that has slipped from its earlier baseline, which suggests that strong rankings on freedom and integrity measures can coexist with slow erosion.

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Finland ranks sixth with 86.22, down one place from fifth in 2025, when it scored 87.18. It is the last of the Nordic countries in RSF's top six.

In RSF's earlier tables Finland ranked second in 2019, 2020 and 2021, with scores of 92.10, 92.07 and 93.01. After RSF changed its methodology in 2022 Finland ranked fifth in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, at 88.42, 87.94, 86.55 and 87.18, and it is sixth now. The drop from 93.01 in 2021 to 86.22 is 6.79 points, though the methodology change means the two periods can't be compared directly.

Finland's score is 1.22 points above the "good" threshold, which makes it, with Ireland at 85.93, one of the two countries closest to losing that rating.

The 2026 index shows a pattern across the world of countries losing ground on the legal indicator, which declined in more than 60% of countries. RSF also says 100 of 180 countries saw a lower score than last year, and that more than half now sit in its "difficult" or "very serious" categories. Finland's slide is small compared with those changes, but it shows the pressure on even the best-regarded media systems. It remains in a top six that includes four Nordic countries, all rated "good," with Iceland just outside at 12th, according to NordiskPost.

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Ireland ranks seventh with 85.93, the same place as in 2025, when it scored 86.92. It is the last of the seven countries that RSF rates "good," just 0.93 points above the 85-point cutoff.

Ireland's history shows how quickly a ranking can change. It was 12th in 2021 with a score of 88.09 and sixth in 2022 at 88.30. It then jumped to second in 2023 with 89.91, one of its best results, before falling to eighth in 2024 at 85.59. It recovered to seventh in 2025 and has held that place this year, though its score has fallen by about a point since 2025.

The difference between a "good" and a "satisfactory" rating is small in numbers but meaningful in RSF's framework. The organization describes a "good" situation as a strong environment with robust legal and institutional protections, and a "satisfactory" one, which runs from 70 to 84, as broadly protective with some challenges to independence or safety.

Ireland is the only country in the top seven outside the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Estonia. RSF's regional analysis for Europe says EU countries have kept their leading positions overall, even though several are in breach of the European Media Freedom Act. Ireland's slim margin means a decline of one more point would take it out of the "good" group.

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Switzerland ranks eighth with 84.83, up from ninth in 2025, when it scored 83.98. It falls just 0.17 points short of the 85-point "good" threshold and sits in RSF's "satisfactory" band, which runs from 70 to 84.

RSF's indicator scores show where the shortfall comes from. Switzerland scores 89.65 on political context, fifth in the world, and 95.24 on safety, ninth. Its sociocultural score of 85.86 ranks eighth. The weaker spots are its legal framework at 82.74, which ranks 18th, and especially its economic context at 70.67, which ranks 11th.

The economic indicator is meant to capture the financial constraints on news organizations carrying out their work. It is also the lowest-scoring indicator for Norway and Portugal, and Switzerland's 70.67 is nearly 19 points below its political score.

Switzerland is also tied for sixth on Transparency International's 2025 corruption index, with a score of 80, which shows a country that does well on both measures of institutional openness. The two indexes measure different things, and neither says the other's result is caused by its own.

RSF notes that Europe is the only region with any countries rated "good," so Switzerland, which narrowly misses, is among the highest-ranked countries in the world.

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Luxembourg ranks ninth with 84.14, up from 13th in 2025, when it scored 83.04. The four-place climb is the largest among the top 10, and it puts the country in RSF's "satisfactory" band, which runs from 70 to 84.

Luxembourg gained 1.10 points over last year while several countries ahead of it lost ground, so part of its rise reflects the field moving. Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Ireland all scored lower than in 2025, and Portugal, which had been ahead of it, fell two places and now sits one spot below it.

Its score is 0.86 points below the "good" threshold of 85 and 1.79 points below Ireland, the last country in the top seven. That is a narrow gap, but the index's categories carry weight: RSF describes "good" as a strong environment with robust legal and institutional protections.

Luxembourg is also an EU member state, so it falls under the European Media Freedom Act, even though RSF says several EU states are still in breach of the law. Transparency International's 2025 corruption index scores Luxembourg 78, tied for eighth, down three points from 2024.

At the global level, RSF says more than half of the 180 countries are rated "difficult" or "very serious." Luxembourg is among a small group at the top where journalists work with relatively few of the legal or political pressures that define the lower tiers.