Press freedom across the Americas deteriorated significantly in 2025, a regional watchdog said Tuesday, citing a worsening environment for journalists in its assessment of 23 countries in the Western Hemisphere.
"This has been one of the worst years in the region, with homicides, arbitrary arrests, and impunity” for crimes committed against journalists, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) said in its annual report.
The Miami-based group has been publishing an annual freedom of speech list, known as the Chapultepec index, since 2020. It evaluates how the United States, Canada and Latin American countries do when it comes to protecting media freedoms.
The 2025 index ranked Venezuela and Nicaragua as nations "without freedom of speech,” while Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and El Salvador fall into the "high restriction” category. Other democracies including, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Panama were ranked as countries with "low restrictions” on freedom of speech.
The United States ranks as a nation with "restrictions” on freedom of speech, the IAPA said, noting that there were 170 attacks against journalists there in 2025, with the report adding that attacks during coverage of procedures undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had raised concerns about journalistic freedoms.
