RSF publishes list of press freedom 'predators': 'Dictators want to silence journalists'

25 killed since the start of this year, over 400 currently imprisoned and more than a dozen held hostage. Today is the UN's international day to end impunity for crimes against journalists and the date of November 2nd chosen in memory of two French journalists from our sister radio station RFI who were murdered in Mali. Back in 2013. Well, press freedom across the globe is on the decrease. Journalist killings are on the rise, and the vast majority of those murders go unpunished. From Eritrea to Mexico, Israel to the United States, journalists are feeling the pressure. To bring us more insight, we're joined by the director of Reporters Without Borders, Thibaut Brouton. Thanks so much for coming in and joining us. When you read the figures and looking at it globally across the board in every country, it feels like press freedom is really being clamped down on. How dangerous do you think it is overall? And why are we seeing this backtracking on press freedom? What we have facing journalism are predators of press freedom. We have dictators or illiberal leaders that are not willing to have the truth told on the public square, want to silence journalists. And that is why we have 90% of impunity of crime committed against journalists. It means that... This is a shocking figure, obviously, but I've been to Veracruz, for example, a state in Mexico last week. It's probably one of the bloodiest states for journalists. And these are figures that are also stories that are not told. These are families that are seeking justice. So we have to take that into account. It's a matter of our right as citizens to reliable information. But this is also a very... Difficult, you know, painful stories for families. I know RSF has been working with Mexico and the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that she wants to work on the issue. When it comes to that particular situation, is that about organized crime in the country or is it directly targeting press freedom from, you know, an authoritarian level? So, it's a... Different layers. You have obviously cartels that kill journalists repeatedly, eight journalists since the beginning of 2026. It's about a third of journalists killed worldwide. Thank you. So we're having a massacre of journalists. But on top of that you have also a political narrative that is hostile to journalists. Every day You have politicians at state level, at local level, that just harass journalists verbally, that just try to portray them as liars. So it goes two ways. We have to fight against impunity, but we also have to restore the trust in journalists. And we are seeing a sort of paradox with political leaders undermining the trust in journalists. And not giving the proper orders to have significant investigations and crime committees against journalists. Indeed, fake news has become such a common phrase now and across the globe. It's not just, you know, the RSF list of press freedom, Eritrea is at the bottom, or North Korea. But across the globe, we're seeing, as you say, this direct attack, even from Washington, you know, banning CNN coming into the White House. It's part of the political toolbox, I would say. And the success of Donald Trump has generated a lot of copy-paste of his techniques across the world. On this day against impunity, RSF wants to talk about the dead, the imprisoned, obviously, but also to reverse the logic and speak about who kills the journalist, who harasses the journalist. And that's why we publish a list of press freedom predators. Their techniques are diverse, very different. From killing journalists, to putting them in jail, to harassing them legally, and one of the features of this 2026 list is that we're welcoming Donald Trump into this very ironic hall of fame, because we think that everything he has put in place, which goes from hostile speeches against journalists, to threatening to ban some channels, or also Forbidding access to White House to several journalists. All of that is a pattern that is repeated worldwide. So it's an inspiration to many leaders, unfortunately. But how then, even as journalists, do we override this? By standing in solidarity, by calling it what it is, and by also favoring proper investigation. I was mentioning Mexico. In Mexico, 95% of the crimes committed against journalists are not properly investigated. You have protection mechanisms, you have a specific district attorney that's charged, that's tasked with working on crimes committed against journalists, but they do not necessarily investigate the link between the killing and the work of a journalist. That should be a priority to dig into that matter, to try to establish the link between the murder... and the work as a journalist so there are many things that can be done and there is no fatalities, there is no tragedy, it's just happening because we do not have public policies that are in place, we do not have also a strong social support to journalism today, we need to build that back. Indeed, it was always seen as the fourth estate part of our democracy, and even journalists in a war zone were seen as protected. You put on that press sticker and you were seen as not a target. Now they seem to be increasingly directly targeted when it comes to wars. Absolutely. And we have also a very difficult conversation with some of our partners on the ground in Ukraine, for example, who want to take out the press badge on the bulletproof vest, saying that it could result in the targeting of the journalist. We've seen that in Gaza as well, where some of the most shocking testimonies that I've been confronted with are the testimonies of journalists that say, well, when we are in the streets of Gaza City, people do not want to talk to us because they think we are military targets and we can get hit. It's not that they don't like us, it's just that they're afraid of talking to us. So it has to change. International law is very clear. And I think Gaza is a proof of that. Journalists are civilians, and the presence of journalists on the ground contributes to the protection of civilians as well. And yet we have seen complete impunity when it comes to the attack, like you were saying, on the journalists, notably in Gaza. But let's look even closer to home. What do you see the situation like in Europe? In Europe, we have also an impunity problem. I've published with three families of killed journalists within the EU an op-ed It's not bad. trying to explain what's going on. I mean, in the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, in the case of Giorgos Karaivaz in Greece, or in the case in Slovakia of Jan Kuciak, we have seen proceedings, we have seen Trials, but we've not seen really the perpetrators convicted. We've not seen the masterminds in jail. That is very shocking. I don't doubt there is a political will and legal will to put an end to impunity in Europe. But we have to acknowledge that there is a failure to convict the proper mastermind in this crime. So the EU remains a safer place for journalists and any other... political and geographical spaces in the world but that being said there is a lot of progress to be to be made in achieving justice and indeed and in retaining or even regaining people's trust in the media how do you think that should be addressed by journalists in general so Our take at RSF is that we have to look at the whole problem in a different way. It's not about press freedom being just a kind of extended freedom of speech for journalists. It is the ability, the capacity for journalists to do their work and to report in the public interest. The mountain of press freedom perceived from a different angle, from the citizen's angle, is nothing else but the right to know, the right to reliable information. That is a human right. So when a journalist is killed, this is everyone's right to know that is being endangered. I guess keeping that spotlight on it and bringing it to justice, staggering the figures of how few of those come to fruition. Thibault Bourdin of Reporters Without Borders, thanks so much for coming in and giving us a bit more insight on the extent of that issue.