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The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) released its annual press freedom index on March 10, 2026, declaring that the previous year had been the worst for freedom of expression in the Americas since the report's inception in 2020. The United States recorded the steepest decline of any country in the hemisphere, falling from 4th place to 11th in a ranking of 23 nations.
The report singled out the United States as an area of "alarming decline," documenting 170 attacks against journalists in 2025 alone. IAPA researchers attributed the drop to multiple converging factors: President Trump's active "stigmatization of critical journalism," the defunding and closure of Voice of America, cuts to public broadcasting, and a pattern of restricted press access and retaliatory treatment of critical outlets.
The broader regional picture was grim. The IAPA described 2025 as "one of the worst years for journalism" in the Americas, marked by murders, arbitrary arrests, exile, and rampant impunity across Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela. The Dominican Republic, Chile, Canada, and Brazil ranked highest for press freedom protections.
The United States' dramatic slide illustrated how quickly institutions that had long been taken for granted — an independent press corps with meaningful access and legal protection — could erode under sustained executive pressure. The closure of Voice of America in particular represented both a domestic press freedom failure and the dismantlement of a Cold War-era public diplomacy tool, even as the Trump administration escalated military operations in Iran.