Ghana rises in global press freedom rankings, secures 39th spot

Ghana has achieved its highest ranking in five years in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Ranked 39th out of 180 countries, Ghana has made significant progress from 52nd in 2025 and 60th in 2022. In Africa, Ghana secured the 4th position, an improvement from 8th in the 2025 report.

South Africa (21), Namibia (23), and Seychelles (35) are the only countries that surpassed Ghana in Africa, while Cabo Verde, Gabon, Mauritius, and Mauritania, which surpassed Ghana in 2025, are currently trailing. Also, countries such as the United States fell from 57th to 64th, while India declined from 151st to 157th, highlighting the global challenges confronting journalists across continents.

The Press Freedom Index annually assesses countries based on five indicators: political context, legislative framework, economic context, sociocultural factors, and security context. After the assessment, the index assigns scores to countries by which they are ranked.

Ghana’s 39th rank comes with an overall score of 72.2 from 67.13 in 2025. When compared to the previous year, the 2026 index shows that Ghana recorded progress across all five indicators. The political context under which journalists do their work improved from 64.44 to 69. The economic indicator also climbed from 44.93 to 51.46. The legal framework that guides the press environment also improved from 75.40 to 80.16, according to the ranking. The social indicator edged up from 71.97 to 73.27, suggesting a broader societal backing for press freedom, and the security indicator saw the sharpest increase, moving from 78.93 to 87.10.

Ghana’s improvement comes against a generally worsening global press freedom situation, according to the RSF.

“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,” the report said.

The RSF has decried that Index’s legal indicator has declined the most over the past year, pointing to a trend of journalism being increasingly criminalised worldwide.

Despite Ghana’s overall improvement in all the indicators, worries persist regarding political influence, economic pressures on media organisations, and the safety of journalists. There have been specific concerns about how state security outfits, especially soldiers and national security operatives, have been rampantly attacking journalists in the country

In the last two years, 2024 and 2025, Ghana has recorded 34 freedom of expression violations, according to Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) Freedom of Expression Monitor. These violations fell under categories such as physical assaults, cyberattacks, arrests/detentions, confiscation or destruction of journalists’ tools, harassment, and censorship.

In January 2026, Solomon Kwame Kanaluwe, a reporter from Media General, was physically assaulted and further detained on suspicion that he had recorded soldiers who had beaten him in Walewale in the North East Region. The soldiers wiped data from the journalist’s phone.

The attack on Solomon adds up to a litany of violations against journalists being recorded recently in Ghana that make up the concerns of press freedom advocates, including the MFWA.

Reacting to Ghana’s improvement in the rankings, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Minister in charge of Government Communications, told The Fourth Estate that it emphasises how they have broadened the frontiers of free expression and encouraged the growth of media rights.

“It reflects the sort of work that we continue to put in and the efforts that we make to guarantee the rights of the Ghanaian media to practice freely,” he says.  

The Minister, despite acknowledging that there could be improvement in reducing the attacks and intimidations against the media, noted that President Mahama has strongly condemned the violations and urged all state actors to accord journalists the necessary protection.

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has also noted that Ghana’s improvement is encouraging and reflects some positive developments in our democratic space.

“It’s an indication that the efforts by the Ghana Journalists Association and other stakeholders to protect media freedom, enhance professionalism, and reduce overt hostility toward journalists are beginning to yield results,” Dominic Hlordzi, General Secretary of the GJA, told The Fourth Estate.

He, however, noted that “The ranking is not just about our position, but about the lived experiences of journalists on the ground. We still see instances of intimidation, occasional attacks, and challenges with access to information,” he said

Dr Kojo Impraim, Director of Media, Development, and Good Governance at MFWA, called on the government to focus much attention on seeking justice and redress for journalists who have been attacked over the years.