Austria climbs to 19th place in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index. The environment for media is now rated as “satisfactory”.
Austria has worked its way further up the press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). With 79.43 out of 100 points, the country is now in 19th place in the ranking and has increased by 1.31 points or three places compared to the previous year. At the top there are Norway, the Netherlands and Estonia, at the bottom there are Eritrea, North Korea and China. In more than half of all countries, the press freedom situation is rated as “difficult” or “very serious”.
The situation is classified as “good” in only seven countries – in addition to the leading trio, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Ireland. Less than one percent of the world’s population lives there. Austria is located next to Canada (20th) and Great Britain (18th) in the group of 36 nations that are considered to have a “satisfactory” situation. These also include Germany (14th), Switzerland (8th) and France (25th).
According to the press documents, the average value of the countries examined has never been as low in the 25-year history of the press freedom index as in 2026. “The current world situation shows every day that democracy and freedom of the press are exposed to enormous threats,” said RSF Austria General Secretary Martin Wassermair in a press release on the ranking. For example, the record number of media workers killed last year must be a “global reminder”. According to RSF information from December, 67 journalists were killed in connection with their work in the previous twelve months – most of them (29) in the Gaza Strip. Since October 2023, more than 220 media workers in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli army, at least 70 of them in the course of their work, RSF said. Israel is in 116th place in the ranking.
But the legal framework – hundreds of journalists around the world are behind bars because of their work, most of them in China – and the financial situation have also made journalism more difficult in many countries in recent decades. In addition, political rhetoric is increasingly directed against media professionals – for example in the USA under President Donald Trump. The United States fell seven places to 64th, classifying the press freedom situation as “problematic.” Syria recorded the biggest jump upwards – albeit at a low level – after the fall of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad. The country gained 36 places and is now in 141st place.
The Press Freedom Index is based on surveys of press freedom experts (e.g. journalists, scientists, human rights experts) from the respective countries, who provide their assessment of the political, economic and socio-cultural context as well as the legal framework and security for media professionals. RSF itself also records any detentions, deaths and hostage-taking.
Austria performs best in terms of safety (94.31 points). The biggest point gain was with regard to the legal context (+2.4 points to 84.37). There was also a noticeable increase in the value for the political context (+1.76 to 74.35), while there was hardly any movement in the socio-cultural (79.09) and economic context (65.01).
Austria has now come a long way from its historic low two years ago (32nd place, 74.7 points). However, the top ten from which we left in 2015 are still not within reach. Wassermair pointed to improvements, especially in the general discourse, which “after numerous cases of corruption and abuse of power, critical reporting is again being valued more.”
What is particularly positive is that the Freedom of Information Act ended official secrecy and thus opens up new opportunities for investigative research. In addition, the first steps were taken to implement the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which provides, for example, requirements for protection against political influence and more transparency in ownership structures. However, RSF Austria President Fritz Hausjell warned that the “overdue stabilization of the economic foundations of media and journalism” had not yet been sufficiently taken into account.
