Country index: how much freedom governments take away
Not an opinion index. Measured facts from independent sources: press freedom (RSF), democracy (V-Dem), journalists killed (CPJ), Chat-Control position, legal situation. Every number with source and year.
The world in numbers
| Indicator | Value | Source (year) |
|---|---|---|
| People living in autocracies | 74% (6 billion) | V-Dem 2026 |
| Global press freedom | 25-year low | RSF Index 2026 |
| Journalists killed 2025 | 129 (record; Israel responsible for 86) | CPJ |
| Killed since 1992 (cumulative) | 1,690+ | CPJ data |
The table
| Country | RSF 2026 (rank) | CPJ killed 1992–2026 | by state agents | Chat Control (Council, Nov. 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Israel/OPT | 116 (46.46) | 221 | 210 | n/a |
| Syria | 141 | 163 | 90 | — |
| Philippines | 114 | 164 | 58 | — |
| Russia | 172 | 84 | 34 | — |
| Mexico | 122 | 171 | 19 | — |
| Brazil | 52 | 60 | 23 | — |
| Germany | 14 (82.17) | 0 | 0 | E2EE mandatory scans dropped |
| France | 25 (76.68) | 10 | 0 | Council position Nov. 2025 |
| Spain | 29 (75.42) | 1 | 0 | Council position Nov. 2025 |
| Portugal | 10 (83.71) | 0 | 0 | Council position Nov. 2025 |
| USA | 64 (62.61) | 17 | 1 | n/a |
| UK | 18 (79.45) | 3 | 0 | n/a |
CPJ queries (as of 2026-10-10): status=Killed, source_of_fire=Government/Military Officials, 1992–2026, journalists + media workers. RSF Index 2026. Full 79-country table: Journalists killed.
How to read this table
A state that kills journalists is the worst case. Israel/OPT leads CPJ’s attribution of journalists killed by government/military officials by a wide margin — 210 of 1992–2026, 191 of them since October 2023 (Gaza war). That is not an opinion index; those are bodies.
But beware simple rankings: RSF measures working conditions, not a state’s morality. France (rank 25) has a video-surveillance problem (VSA) and an anti-influence law, but zero journalists killed by state agents. Israel (116) has 210. The index measures “where can journalists work?” — a different question that must also be asked.
What this index is NOT
- Not our own scoring. We aggregate existing measurements; their methodology belongs to their publishers.
- No weighting. A country with 0 killed journalists can still be a surveillance state (China jails rather than kills accredited journalists).
- Not exhaustive. “Killed by state agents” covers confirmed attribution only.