BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Press freedom in the Americas suffered a “dramatic deterioration” in 2025, a regional watchdog said Tuesday in an assessment of conditions for the profession in 23 countries across the Western Hemisphere.
The Miami-based Inter American Press Association, or IAPA, has been publishing an annual freedom of speech list, known as the Chapultepec index, since 2020. It evaluates how the U.S., Canada and Latin American countries do when it comes to protecting media freedoms.
“This has been one of the worst years in the region, with homicides, arbitrary arrests, and impunity” for crimes committed against journalists, the organization said in its annual report.
The 2025 index ranked Venezuela and Nicaragua as nations “without freedom of speech,” while Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and El Salvador fall into the “high restriction” category. Other democracies including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Panama were ranked as countries with “low restrictions” on freedom of speech.
The United States ranks as a nation with “restrictions” on freedom of speech, the IAPA said, noting that there were 170 attacks against journalists there in 2025. The report added that attacks during coverage of procedures undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had raised concerns about journalistic freedoms.