Media freedom vs. trust: a global paradox

As we prepare to celebrate World Press Freedom Day on May 3, we are highlighting the vital role of a free and independent press in supporting democracy and holding power to account. Governments can disrupt their countries’ network connections and social media access to silence the public in times of political unrest. As media environments around the world face varying degrees of restriction, this study explores a key question: how does digital media landscape influence public trust in the media?

“Press freedom is under great strain globally, amid rising authoritarianism and weakening commitments to human rights. Journalism and journalists are under tremendous pressure in nearly every country and every region of the world. From physical harm to legal threats to market pressures, the work of journalists has become increasingly more difficult and increasingly more dangerous. At the same time, the need for strong, independent journalism has become even more critical: from bringing us accurate news and information from the front lines of conflict to shedding light on corruption, crime and abuses of power – the need for robust, independent, public-interest journalism is greater than ever,” says Scott Griffen, Executive Director at the International Press Institute.

Key insights

• According to Freedom House, 72 countries, accounting for 87% of the world’s internet users, were classified as having free (26%), partly free (45%), and not free (29%) digital media landscape. This categorization aligns with Surfshark’s Internet Shutdown Tracker, which reports that among the 19 countries marked as free, there were only five total internet disruptions since 2015.
• Notably, even in these countries within the free digital media category, disruptions still occurred, highlighting how internet access can be restricted during moments of political tension. For instance, Georgia experienced two internet disruptions, and Armenia faced three, with four linked to political unrest and one to public protests.
• In contrast, 32 countries where digital media is marked as partly free experienced a total of 70 internet shutdowns. Almost all the countries in this list experienced disruptions, with the leaders being Bangladesh (10), Iraq (7), Zimbabwe (7), and Brazil (6).
• The 21 countries where digital media was marked as not free experienced 220 internet disruptions, registering on average 5 times more internet disruptions than in countries with partly free digital media — and 42 times more than in countries with free digital media. The most disruptions were experienced by Iran (57), Venezuela (38), Pakistan (24), and Turkey (17). Internet disruptions occurred due to protests (44% of cases), political turmoil (45% of cases), elections (6% of cases), and internet law (5% of cases).
• When looking at news media trust¹, adults in countries with freer media tend to trust the media less on average. Specifically, 39% of adults trust the media in countries with free digital media, compared to 41% in countries with partly free digital media and 45% in countries with not free digital media.
• By comparing news media trust¹ with Internet Shutdown Tracker data, we can observe similar tendencies: in countries where there have been internet disruptions to silence the public, the average news media trust is 45%, while in countries where no such disruptions occurred, the average news media trust is 39%.
• For example, the highest trust in media is found in Kenya (64%) and Nigeria (61%), both of which have experienced internet disruptions in the past and are marked as countries with partly free digital media. On the other hand, people in countries where digital media is free, such as Italy (34%), Taiwan (33%), the United States (32%), and France (31%) trust news media considerably less, while countries with not free digital media such as Thailand (54%) and Turkey (35%) show higher levels of trust.
• AI can also threaten press freedom by spreading disinformation and enabling censorship. It can make lies seem true, making it harder for journalists to report accurately. An article from the Society of Environmental Journalists² warns that generative AI could lead to even more censorship by controlling language. It urges journalists to reshape AI's role to maintain independence and resist control by powerful entities, highlighting concerns about misinformation and loss of autonomy.

Methodology and sources

We combined internet freedom data from Freedom House and Surfshark's Internet Shutdown Tracker to understand how censorship is applied in 72 countries. Based on the '’Freedom on the Net'’ score, countries’ digital media landscape were categorized into the following groups: 100-70 as free, 69-40 as partly free, and 39-0 as not free. These countries were selected based on their inclusion in the Freedom House data. Additionally, we analyzed the Digital News Report1 to understand media trust among adults in 47 analyzed countries. By integrating these sources, we aimed to explore the connections between digital media freedom, censorship, and media trust.

Data was collected from:

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