Sri Lanka has climbed five places in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, ranking 134th out of 180 countries with a global score of 40.77. The latest report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) marks an improvement from 2025, when the country was placed 139th.

According to RSF, press freedom issues in Sri Lanka are closely tied to the civil war that ravaged the island until 2009, as well as the still-unpunished crimes of violence against numerous journalists when the Tamil rebellion was being crushed.

RSF says per the latest report, journalism is still in danger in this country of 22 million inhabitants, as the media landscape lacks diversity, is highly concentrated and dependent on major political clans.

For the first time in the history of the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, over half of the world’s countries now fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom.

In 25 years, the average score of all 180 countries and territories surveyed in the Index has never been so low. Since 2001, the expansion of increasingly restrictive legal arsenals, particularly those linked to national security policies, has been steadily eroding the right to information, even in democratic countries.

The Index’s legal indicator has seen the most severe decline this year, a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide. This score deteriorated in more than 60% of states, 110 out of 180, between 2025 and 2026.

This is notably the case in India (157th), Egypt (169th), Israel (116th) and Georgia (135th). The criminalisation of journalism, which is rooted in circumventing press law and misusing emergency legislation and common law, is proving to be a global phenomenon.

In 21 of the 32 countries and territories assessed across the Asia-Pacific zone, the state of press freedom is classified as either “difficult” or “very serious.”

It is one of the most repressive regions in the world, and the situation continues to deteriorate. This is largely due to legal attacks against the press, notably abusive charges and draconian laws.

More troubling still, the censorship and propaganda tactics developed by regional authoritarian regimes, China foremost among them, are now spreading far beyond their borders.

Norway holds the top spot for the tenth consecutive year, while Eritrea comes in last for the third year in a row.