Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Other notable entries are Vladimir Putin, Victor Orban and U.S. FCC-chair Brendan Carr.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has unveiled its latest list of “press freedom predators,” accusing world leaders, armed forces, and criminal organizations of systematically attacking journalists and suppressing access to information.
The Paris-based watchdog released its 2025 ranking on the eve of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed annually on November 2.
A global roll call
Among those named are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and the Israeli military.
But tech-giants like Elon Musk, Alphabet (owner of Google and Youtube) and Meta (owner of Instagram and Facebook) are also found on the list.
RSF said all those listed share a “hatred for press freedom,” using varied methods — from propaganda and discrediting campaigns to imprisonment and murder to silencing critical voices through judicial harassment and financial ruin.
“Their weapons differ, but their objectives converge: to silence independent voices and trample on the right to information,” the organization said in its statement, cited by EFE.
Persistent repression
RSF’s 2025 compilation includes 34 individuals and groups, from heads of state to militias and organized crime networks.
The organization noted that several figures, including China’s President Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, remain on the list for their “relentless” persecution of the media.
“Unrestrained repression” against journalists continued throughout 2025, RSF said, highlighting authoritarian regimes and powerful political structures that systematically restrict press freedom.
Putin, Lukashenko, and Orban were singled out as emblematic of governments that “blend censorship with intimidation” to control narratives.
Deadly toll in conflict zones
The Israeli armed forces were accused of being responsible for the deaths of nearly 220 journalists under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
RSF said Israel’s military also conducts “online smear campaigns” to discredit reporters.
Myanmar’s State Peace and Security Commission and Burkina Faso’s ruling junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, were cited for “actively silencing independent reporting.”
In Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was described as the country’s most violent criminal organization and one of the world’s major “predators of journalism.”
New faces of control
The 2025 list also includes figures accused of using regulatory and legal means to suppress the press, such as Brendan Carr, director of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Cambodian Deputy Attorney General Seng Heang; and Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.
According to RSF, they “choke newsrooms or subject them to arbitrary legal pressure,” undermining journalistic independence.
Technology has also become a tool of repression. RSF accused China’s Xi Jinping of using AI chatbots to disseminate propaganda, while it said Elon Musk uses his social platform X to “harass journalists.”
Weaponizing the web
The organization further warned of the growing use of online platforms for disinformation and intimidation.
It cited India’s nationalist website OpIndia for intensifying campaigns against reporters critical of the government.
“The digital sphere has become a new battlefield where technology amplifies censorship,” RSF noted, emphasizing the global dimension of the threat.
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, established by the UN in 2013, commemorates the killing of two French journalists in Mali and calls for accountability for violence against media professionals.
You can find the full list of “Press Freedom Predators” on Reporters Without Borders’ website (opens new tab).
This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation
