Today’s list released by the organization includes names such as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and Argentine Javier Milei, as well as the Mexican cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación and the Guatemalan Antiterrorist Foundation.
These individuals “violently attacked journalists and the right to information,” highlighted RSF.
All the mentioned parties share “a common hatred for press freedom,” with the main goal being to “silence independent voices and weaken the right to information,” the organization emphasized.
Among the 34 heads of state and government, religious leaders, militias, and criminal organizations persecuting journalists are also Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Included are those who have “relentlessly” persecuted the press for years, such as the Chinese Communist Party led by Xi Jinping, and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman, whom the international organization equates with Putin and Lukashenko.
These figures stood out again in 2025 for their “unbridled repression” against journalists and media outlets, RSF stated.
The Israeli armed forces, “responsible for the death of almost 220 journalists under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government,” are also included.
The State Peace and Security Commission of Myanmar and Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré are actively silencing “independent reporting.”
In Mexico, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) is expected to consolidate in 2025 as the country’s most violent criminal organization and one of the largest predators of journalism, RSF added.
In 2025, press freedom predators are also characterized by the increasing use of technology to obstruct freedom of information.
While Xi Jinping employs Chinese ‘chatbots’ to disseminate state propaganda, Elon Musk uses his social network X to persecute journalists, and the Israeli army conducts “online” smear campaigns to discredit the profession, according to the Paris-based organization.
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists is observed on November 2, since the UN established this date in 2013, in memory of the murder of two French journalists in Mali.
