Turkey ranked 163rd out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index prepared by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), falling from 159th place last year.
The ranking made Turkey the 18th worst country in the index. RSF cited the regular use of accusations such as “disinformation,” “insulting the president” and “denigrating state institutions” as tools to suppress journalism and imprison journalists.
'Disinformation law' used against 83 journalists since 2022
For the first time in the history of the index, most countries worldwide are classified as being in a “difficult” or “very serious” situation. The average score of all countries reviewed has never been this low in the past 25 years.
The spread of increasingly restrictive legal regulations, particularly those linked to national security policies, has eroded the right to access information even in democracies since 2001.
The legal indicator recorded the sharpest decline this year, showing that journalism is increasingly being criminalized. A significant shift is also taking place in the Americas, where the US fell seven places in the index and many Latin American countries are being drawn into a spiral of violence and pressure.
BIA Media Monitoring Reports
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