Aleksandar Vučić on the list of the world's biggest predators of media freedom.

On the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, observed on November 2, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published profiles of 34 Press Freedom Predators who attacked journalists and the public's right to information throughout 2025.

What do they have in common? A hatred for media freedom. Their methods may vary, but their goals align – to silence independent voices and trample on the right to information, emphasize Reporters Without Borders in the text we are sharing in its entirety:

Murder, imprisonment, smear campaigns, propaganda, "troll armies" – these are all their means of silencing. The publication of these names on such a symbolic date serves as a reminder that impunity is not inevitable: those who trample on the freedom of information must be named and held accountable.

Attacks by Various Means

They kill, censor, imprison, and attack journalists, stifle the media, tarnish journalism, or use its forms to manipulate information for propaganda purposes.

In 2025, media professionals remained targets of increasingly diverse predatory techniques.

“We must acknowledge the media enemies’ ability to continuously renew their methods of attack on journalism. This edition of Press Freedom Predators illustrates the variety of threats: while some politicians stifle reliable information, others kill or imprison journalists, while yet others manipulate media funding or use public statements and lawsuits to silence them. By publishing their portraits on this symbolic day of the fight against impunity, RSF reminds us that it is not inevitable and that those who trample on the freedom of information must be named and held accountable,” says Tibo Bruten, the General Director of RSF.

METHODOLOGY

The list of Press Freedom Predators for 2025 serves as a counterpart to the World Press Freedom Index, which RSF publishes annually. While the Index measures the state of media freedom in countries, this list highlights those who violate it.

The predators are divided into five categories, derived from the Index indicators: political, security, economic, legal, and social.

Each of them is located according to the attacks they carried out during 2025 – whether they use state apparatus to silence the media, resort to physical violence, financially exhaust newsrooms, abuse the law to imprison or censor, or incite hatred against the journalistic profession. Who are they? Who were their targets in 2025? And what "weapons" did they use?

Global Predators

The list includes those who have been persecuting journalists for years – the Communist Party of China led by Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman from Saudi Arabia, Vladimir Putin, and Alexander Lukashenko. All of them were "notable" in 2025 for their unchecked persecution of journalists and the media.

Also on the list are the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), responsible for the deaths of nearly 220 journalists under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Myanmar's state commission for peace and security and the military junta in Burkina Faso, led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, known for its brutal suppression of independent reporting.

In Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) stood out in 2025 as the most violent criminal organization in the country and one of the most dangerous predators of journalism.

Due to media suppression or judicial pressure, the list also includes Brendan Carr, head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Deputy Prosecutor Seng Hiang from Cambodia, as well as former Georgian Prime Minister and tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Technological Manipulations and Propaganda Campaigns

In 2025, predators increasingly used technology to restrict the freedom of reporting. Xi Jinping employs Chinese chatbots to spread state propaganda, Elon Musk uses his social network X to harass journalists, while Israeli forces, already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of journalists, conduct online smear campaigns to discredit journalism.

In India, the portal OpIndia, close to the Hindu-nationalist government, intensified disinformation campaigns and harassment of journalists who criticize the government in 2025.

Press Freedom Predators 2025:

POLITICAL – those who politically suppress the freedom of information:

1. Haibatullah Akhundzada (Afghanistan)

2. Vladimir Putin (Russia)

3. Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua)

4. Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus)

5. Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan)

6. Ali Khamenei (Iran)

7. Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela)

8. Viktor Orbán (Hungary)

SECURITY – those who use violence, murder, and arrests against journalists:

9. Israel Defense Forces – IDF (Israel)

10. Communist Party of China (China)

11. State Commission for Peace and Security (Myanmar)

12. Mohammed bin Salman (Saudi Arabia)

13. Military junta (Burkina Faso)

14. Jalisco New Generation Cartel – CJNG (Mexico)

15. Alexander Vučić (Serbia)

LEGAL – those who abuse laws and the judiciary:

16. Brendan Carr (USA, Federal Communications Commission)

17. Counter-Terrorism Foundation (Guatemala)

18. Seng Hiang (Cambodia)

19. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey)

20. John Lee Ka-chiu (Hong Kong)

21. Roskomnadzor (Russia)

22. Adani Group (India)

ECONOMIC – those who financially destroy the media:

23. Alphabet and Meta (USA)

24. Bidzina Ivanishvili (Georgia)

25. Vladimir Tabak (Russia)

26. Alden Global Capital (United States)

27. William Ruto (Kenya)

28. Vincent Bolloré (France)

SOCIAL – those who spread propaganda, hatred, and doubt towards journalists:

29. Elon Musk (United States)

30. Honest Reporting (Israel – propaganda organization)

31. Margarita Simonyan (Russia)

32. OpIndia (India – Hindu-nationalist portal)

33. Javier Milei (Argentina)

34. Robert Fico (Slovakia)

Source: Cenzolovka