Latvia has slipped to 17th place out of 180 countries and territories in the World Press Freedom Index 2026, compared to 15th place in 2025, according to the annual ranking published on Thursday by the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
It’s the second year in a row that Latvia has fallen in the well-known rankings, after it toppled from 12th to 15th in 2024-2025.
“Latvian journalists work in a fairly free and safe environment, but political pressure on the media and the Russian-speaking population’s access to reliable information from diverse sources is a real problem,” said RSF.
Latvia lags behind both Estonia (3rd place) and Lithuania (15th place) in the list but can take considerable solace from the fact that it is one place ahead of the United Kingdom (18th place) and way ahead of the United States (64th place, down seven places). Russia remains an absolute wasteland as far as press freedom is concerned and ranks 172nd out of 180 countries.
“For the first time in the history of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 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,” lamented RSF.