Ukraine’s Press Freedom Improves Despite the Ongoing War, Climbing 18 Spots in Global Ranking

Despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country has climbed up 18 spots in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking in 2024, securing 61st place.

Ukraine’s media has faced multiple challenges with Russia waging a full-scale invasion in 2022. Along with the physical fight for its cities and civilians, Ukraine is at the frontline of the information war against Russian disinformation.

Reporters Without Borders’s annual ranking compares the freedom of the press in 180 countries. The ranking gets published before World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The 2024 press freedom ranking showed that, despite the wartime challenges, Ukraine has progressed in the media field, where it earned 61st place, thus climbing 18 spots from its previous position of 79 in 2023.

With war being the main agenda of every day’s news, the Ukrainian media continues to cover social issues and plays an essential role in exposing corruption within the country’s elite, despite being under pressure.

Russia’s attacks across the country have turned all journalists in Ukraine into war journalists. Although it has improved, compared to 2023, rising from 179 to 142, the security indicator remains the biggest problem.