MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines received its highest ranking in 21 years on the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index in 2025, but political and economic factors continue to hamper journalists in the country from reporting freely.
Every year, the RSF World Press Freedom Index issues rankings and scores based on the freedoms enjoyed by journalists in 180 countries and territories around the world.
Currently, the Philippines ranks 116th out of 180 countries and territories — jumping 18 places from its ranking in 2024. However, RSF noted that the Philippines’ press freedom score has only slightly improved in the past year, and that the media landscape in the country remains to be in a “difficult situation.”
RSF found that aspects related to safety and the country’s legal situation have improved for the Philippine press, but that the country’s political climate and economy still pose major hurdles for the media today.
The RSF index, explained
The RSF World Press Freedom Index assesses the state of press freedom in each country or territory based on its political, legal, economic, sociocultural, and safety landscape.
Apart from issuing rankings, RSF assigns overall scores ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being the best possible score. Countries and territories also have scores per contextual indicator, also ranging from 0 to 100.
While the Philippines’ ranking jumped 18 places on the World Press Freedom Index from the previous year, its overall score only increased by 6.2 points — indicating only a slight overall improvement in the state of press freedom.
RSF also has five classifications for its scores:
- Good situation: 85 to 100 points
- Satisfactory situation: 70 to 85 points
- Problematic situation: 55 to 70 points
- Difficult situation: 40 to 55 points
- Very serious situation: 0 to 40 points
The Philippines received an overall score of 49.57 in 2025, which means press freedom in the country remains in a difficult situation.
In a Rappler Talk interview, RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska explained that the Philippines’ upward movement on the index is mainly related to the changing rankings of surrounding countries.
In the Asia-Pacific region, various countries and territories including Cambodia and Hong Kong are seeing crackdowns on press freedom and independent reporting. Media ownership is also concentrated among politically-connected conglomerates in other Asian countries, such as India and Indonesia.
Improvements in safety and legal aspects
When zooming into the individual contextual indicators, RSF noted improvements in the safety and legal aspects of press freedom in the Philippines.
The safety aspect was the only area where the Philippines’ classification improved. This year, the Philippines received a safety score of 61.57, landing in the “problematic situation” category. In 2024, the Philippines’ safety score landed in the “difficult situation” category, the second-lowest classification used by RSF.
RSF has specific criteria for assessing the safety conditions of the press in a certain country or territory. A journalist killing would be the most serious safety threat, but RSF’s scores also tally abductions, arrests, and other physical attacks. RSF also keeps track of detained journalists, and computes safety scores based on the length of time a given journalist has been detained.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 2024 marked the first year in two decades without a journalist killing in the Philippines. The CPJ records journalist killings if it has reasonable grounds to believe a journalist was murdered in relation to their work.
The most recent journalist killing in the Philippines happened just in late April 2025, when former Kalibo mayor and veteran journalist Johnny Dayang was shot in his home in Aklan. Earlier in February, a photojournalist’s car was bombed outside his residence in Quezon City.
Press freedom in the Philippines also saw a slight improvement in terms of the legal landscape, due to fewer instances of legal harassment against journalists. However, some legal cases against journalists are still pending in court, such as the cyber libel case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr.
Grave political and economic situations
The Philippines received low scores for its political and economic landscapes, where the country was classified under the “very serious situation” category — the lowest of RSF’s five classifications.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appears to be friendlier towards the press compared to his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who was among RSF’s press freedom predators. However, Marcos Jr. seldom faces the media, and Malacañang journalists have struggled with accessing the President and Palace events.
This inaccessibility has serious repercussions on transparency and accountability, Bielakowska explained.
“Access to reliable and factual information is a basis of functioning societies and democracies…. The media is essential to democratic participation in general. That’s why we deplore this type of behavior…. All journalists should be allowed to question the authorities, and be allowed to interview the elected officials,” she said.
Some of the impacts of Duterte-era threats against the media have also not been fully reversed or remedied by the Marcos Jr. administration. After five years, Frenchie Mae Cumpio is still detained, and broadcast giant ABS-CBN has yet to regain its legislative franchise.
“There [are] so many cases, even if they started during Duterte’s time, that [are] still continuing with this current government. Without the fixing of these problems…we will not see such an improvement in the press freedom situation in the Philippines,” Bielakowska explained.
Economic conditions have also crippled Philippine-based journalists and news organizations. Media workers in the Philippines typically receive low salaries, and some journalists decide to leave the industry for more financially stable careers.
Bielakowska said there is a global trend of economic conditions impacting journalists worldwide. RSF found that in 160 of 180 countries and territories — accounting for over 88% of areas included in the index — media outlets achieve financial stability “with difficulty,” or “not at all.”
In various countries around the world, news organizations have had to lay off workers or close shop following mounting financial losses.
The current information ecosystem, oversaturated with various information sources, has challenged the role of journalism and raised questions about whether or not the media will survive in the digital age.
Tech platforms have also introduced policies that restrict the reach of journalists and reliable information online. Earlier in January, Meta scrapped its fact-checking program in the United States, leaving partner news and fact-checking organizations blindsided. Meta’s news ban in countries like Canada has also led to financial losses for journalists and media outlets.
“The economic pressure has a major blow to press freedom around the world, including the Philippines…. The Philippines is one of the best examples among democracies… on how much [the economy] infringes the capacity of journalists to continue their work,” Bielakowska said. — Rappler.com