2025 proved unusually dangerous for journalists: 126 media workers were killed worldwide by early December, and U.S. reporters faced a surge in assaults, many involving law enforcement. Political rhetoric and policy moves in the United States have tightened access and funding for news organizations, while impunity for attacks remains a major concern. The long-term decline in newsroom staffing continues, although a handful of independent local outlets offer modest reasons for hope.
2025: A Harrowing Year for Journalists — Deadly Toll, Rising Attacks, and Glimmers of Local Resilience
FILE - President Donald Trump talks to the media as he walks to Marine One from the White House, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
NEW YORK — By almost every measure, 2025 has been a bleak year for press freedom. Journalists and media workers faced an unusually deadly and hostile environment worldwide, while reporters in the United States experienced a sharp rise in assaults and increasing restrictions on access and funding.
Tracking Killings and Assaults
By early December 2025, 126 people from the media industry had been reported killed worldwide, matching the total for all of 2024 — a year that set a grim record, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Of those 126 deaths, 85 were linked to Israel's bombardment of Gaza; CPJ reports that 82 of those victims were Palestinians.
"It's extremely concerning," said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "What we know from decades of doing this work is that impunity breeds impunity. A failure to tackle journalists' killings creates an environment where those killings continue."
The committee estimates at least 323 journalists are imprisoned worldwide. None of the fatalities this year were U.S.-based, but reporting on American soil proved hazardous: the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker recorded 170 reported assaults on journalists in 2025, 160 of which involved law enforcement. Many incidents occurred while reporters were covering immigration enforcement operations.
Political Pressure, Access Limits, and Lawsuits
The conflict between the press and the U.S. administration intensified reporting pressures. Observers point to frequent hostile rhetoric from President Donald Trump and to policy moves that critics say restrict and intimidate journalists. The Associated Press, for example, saw its access limited after it declined to adopt the administration's preferred renaming of the Gulf of Mexico; the AP has pursued legal remedies that remain unresolved. The administration has also extracted settlements from ABC and CBS over disputed stories and is pursuing lawsuits against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Congressional allies also moved to cut funding for public broadcasting, and the administration advanced efforts to scale back government-funded global broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America — a development critics say weakens U.S. support for independent media overseas.
In another controversial step, the White House press office launched an online portal for complaints about news outlets the day after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Pentagon rules proposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prompted most mainstream news organizations to surrender their on-site Pentagon credentials rather than accept new restrictions. Many outlets continue to report from off-site locations, and The New York Times has sued to overturn the rules.
Public Awareness, Industry Decline, And Small Signs Of Hope
Public awareness of the administration's friction with the press appears limited: a Pew Research Center survey found 36% of Americans had heard about the administration's relationship with the media earlier this year, down from 72% at a similar point in the president's first term. Polls routinely show journalists have low popularity, which may blunt public sympathy as reporting becomes more difficult.
The industry continues to shrink after more than two decades of decline driven largely by collapsing advertising revenue. A report from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News found that the number of journalists per 100,000 Americans fell from about 40 in 2002 to just over eight in 2025 — a dramatic drop that has eroded local news capacity.
Still, advocates point to modest growth among independent local outlets as cause for cautious optimism. Ginsberg and Tim Richardson of PEN America highlighted projects such as the Baltimore Banner, Charlottesville Tomorrow and Outlier Media in Michigan as examples of new models trying to sustain local reporting in a depleted landscape.
As Axios CEO Jim VandeHei observed, reporters at mainstream outlets continue to do hard work that shapes the national conversation. "Over time, people will hopefully come to their senses and say, 'Hey, the media like anything else is imperfect but, man, it's a nice thing to have a free press,'" he told The Associated Press.
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.
