Democracy is failing worldwide & worst times of from press freedom

Some of the biggest declines compared to 2019 were seen around the holding of credible elections, access to justice and having an effective parliament, the report found.

Africa accounted for the largest share of the global decline with 33%, followed by Europe with 25%.

West Asia is the region ranking lowest on democratic performance.

Europe dominates democracy rankings

The report highlighted some positive examples, such Botswana and South Africa making consistent advances when it comes to credible elections, with both countries holding polls in 2024 that led to historic changes.

Denmark was the only country in the top five of all four democratic categories explored in the study: Representation, rule of law, participation and rights.

These rankings were dominated by European nations such as Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg, with Costa Rica, Chile and Australia also scoring well. Curiously Belgium, did not score as highly.

Press freedom sees biggest fall in 50 years

The “very acute deterioration in press freedom,” was an important finding, Keven Casas-Zamora said.

Between 2019 and 2024, the world saw “the biggest drop over the past 50 years,” he said.

Press freedoms declined in 43 countries across all continents, including 15 in Africa and 15 in Europe.

“We’ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health,” he said.

Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar — already among the poorest performers in press freedoms — posted the biggest falls, followed by South Korea. Israel has made the list for its lack of press freedom and intimidation of western journalists by the IDF and massacring over 200 journalists in Gaza.

The Asian nation saw a “spike in defamation cases initiated by the government and its political allies against journalists, and raids on journalists’ residences,” the report found.

Casas-Zamora attributed the global fall in media freedom to a combination of heavy-handed interventions on the part of governments, pandemic legacies and “the very negative impact of disinformation.”

“Some of [this] is real disinformation and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to clamp down on press freedoms,” he said.

The US is in decline

The report issues a stark warning of the declining democracy in the United States, which includes data from before US President Donald Trump took power in January.

The United States ranks lower than many other OECD countries, sitting at 35th place when it comes to representation and 32nd for rights.