Brazil Press Freedom Ranking Surpasses United States for First Time
Key Points
—Brazil rose to 52nd place in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index, surpassing the United States for the first time in the index’s 25-year history.
—The United States fell seven places to 64th, the fourth consecutive annual decline, with RSF citing Trump’s “systematic policy” of attacks on the press.
—Global press freedom hit its lowest level in 25 years, with only seven countries rated “good” — Brazil’s recovery is one of the few bright spots in the Americas.
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The Brazil press freedom ranking just passed the United States for the first time in the 25-year history of the world’s most-cited media-freedom index — and the gap is twelve places.
The Brazil press freedom ranking rose to 52nd place in the Reporters Without Borders 2026 World Press Freedom Index, published Thursday, surpassing the United States for the first time since the index began in 2002. The United States fell seven places to 64th, its fourth consecutive annual decline. The reversal lands as RSF reports global press freedom has hit its lowest level in 25 years, with only seven countries rated “good.”
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that Brazil has now climbed 58 positions in the index since 2022, when the country sat in the “red zone” 111th place under President Jair Bolsonaro. Last year Brazil was 63rd. This year’s 11-place jump is the country’s largest single-year improvement in the modern era of the index.
How the Brazil Press Freedom Ranking Reversal Happened
RSF attributes Brazil’s recovery to declining political and judicial pressure on outlets after the end of the Bolsonaro era, a stronger legal framework, and improved economic indicators for newsrooms. Brazil stands out as one of the few countries in the Americas that boosted its economic indicator — most regional newsrooms continue to lose ground as ad revenue shifts to global platforms. The 2022 floor at 111th place came after years of presidential attacks on individual journalists and outlets, criminal prosecutions of reporters, and informal sanctions against critical coverage.
RSF still classifies Brazil as in a “sensitive situation” rather than fully favorable. The country sits below Italy, Japan, and France, but above Chile (70th), Paraguay (88th), Argentina (98th), and far above Venezuela (159th) and Cuba (160th). The Brazil press freedom ranking is now the highest in continental South America after Uruguay (48th).
Why the United States Fell to 64th
The US drop is more dramatic than the headline suggests. RSF wrote that “Donald Trump has turned his repeated attacks on the press and journalists into a systematic policy” and called the deterioration “one of the most serious crises for press freedom in the modern history of the United States.” The detention and subsequent deportation of Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara was cited as a specific marker, alongside police violence against reporters covering protests.
RSF also flagged the drastic cuts to the US Agency for Global Media, which led to closures, suspensions, and downsizing at Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other US-funded international broadcasters. The effects extend well beyond US borders, the report notes, hitting independent media globally that had relied on USAGM funding. The US in 2022 was 42nd; the four-year fall to 64th is the steepest sustained decline by any G7 democracy in the 25-year history of the index.
Latin America in the 2026 Index
The Americas as a region declined 14 points since 2022, matching the deterioration seen in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. Argentina under Javier Milei dropped to 98th, with RSF specifically citing the Casa Rosada press accreditation revocation that The Rio Times has reported on, while El Salvador continued its descent under Bukele, down 61 places since 2020. Mexico remains the region’s deadliest country for journalists.
The Latin American leader is Uruguay at 48th, Chile sits at 70th and is expected to face downward pressure under the Kast administration’s institutional moves, while Venezuela ranks 159th and Cuba 160th — both classified as “very serious” alongside Nicaragua at 168th. The regional pattern RSF identifies is the rise of two pressures: organized crime violence, which dominates in Mexico and Colombia, and political-actor violence, which dominates in the southern Cone and Central America.
The 25-Year Global Picture
The global RSF score average has fallen from 72 out of 100 in 2002 to 54 in 2026 — a quarter-century slide. In 2002, RSF estimated 20% of the world’s population lived in countries with “good” press freedom; that figure is now 1%. Norway holds the top spot for the tenth consecutive year, followed by the Netherlands, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Ireland — the only seven countries currently rated “good.”
More than half of the world’s countries now sit in “difficult” or “very serious” categories, the first time that threshold has been crossed since the index began. Russia (172nd) holds 48 journalists in detention, while China sits 178th and Iran 177th. RSF director general Thibaut Bruttin called the global trend a sign that “press freedom is no longer guaranteed” in fewer and fewer countries — a claim Brazil’s recovery and the US’s fall demonstrate from opposite directions in a single ranking.
What the Brazil Press Freedom Ranking Means Going Forward
For Brazil, the 2026 index is consolidation. The Lula government has reversed the most damaging Bolsonaro-era pressures on the press, and RSF’s economic indicator notes resilience that few peers in the Americas have managed. The next test is the October 2026 presidential election — Bolsonaro family politics remain influential, and the index measures conditions during the election year that just begins.
For the United States, the institutional reading is harder. RSF’s specific finding — that Trump’s actions constitute “one of the most serious crises for press freedom in the modern history of the United States” — is a quantitative output, not editorial framing, and the index’s components track political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and safety. Each category contributed to the seven-place decline, and three of them are functions of executive policy choices that have sharpened in the second Trump term.
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