Why a free press is the world’s best defence against impunity

When power goes unchecked, societies pay a heavy price. Crime rises. Corruption deepens. Norms erode. That is the core argument behind the 2025 Atlas of Impunity, and its findings make for sobering reading.

The Atlas, developed in partnership between the global research and advisory firm Eurasia Group and a global advisory board of human rights experts, is the first comprehensive global index to measure impunity, defined as the exercise of power without accountability, across nearly 200 countries and territories.

Now in its fourth year, it draws on 60 indicators from 24 independent datasets to track abuse of power across five dimensions: unaccountable governance, human rights, conflict and violence, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation.

The 2025 edition was launched on 29th June at an event hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation at its London headquarters, along with an expert panel moderated by Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla, himself a member of the Atlas advisory board.

The panel featured former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband (pictured right) in his capacity as co-chair of the Atlas advisory board; Peter Ceretti (second-to-left), Practice Head of Geostrategy at Eurasia Group; and Janine Di Giovanni (second-to-right), acclaimed foreign correspondent and CEO of The Reckoning Project. The discussion was held under Chatham House rules.

The convening brought together a mix of experts from academia, law, policy, civil society, and journalism.

Key findings at a glance

• Press freedom deterioration ranked first out of 10 factors driving impunity globally.
• The average global impunity score has barely shifted since 2020, but this masks a deepening divide between improving and deteriorating states.
• The Russia-Ukraine war accounted for 46% of all recorded battles in 2025, and Myanmar for 31% of all state-perpetrated violence against civilians.
• Impunity is not only a human rights issue; where it thrives, business conditions deteriorate too.

A world pulling in opposite directions

On the surface, the average global impunity score has barely moved in five years, shifting from 40.4 out of 100 in 2020 to 39.5 in 2025. But the headline figure conceals a more troubling picture.

The Atlas describes a “great divergence”: while some countries are making genuine progress on accountability, the worst-affected states are deteriorating rapidly.

Conflict data illustrates this clearly. Battles, skirmishes, state violence and combat fatalities have all increased since 2020 yet the average conflict score appears to improve, because, as the Atlas authors put it, “the toll of conflict is concentrated in a relatively small proportion of countries.”

The suffering is real, but it is simply invisible within the global average.

Why press freedom matters to everyone

Of all the factors measured, the decline in press freedom had the greatest negative impact on global impunity in the five years to 2025.

The Atlas argues that a weakened press “weakens the information ecosystem, making it more difficult to understand when rules and norms have been broken” and gives greater rein to those seeking to evade accountability altogether.

Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla, who contributed commentary to the Atlas, said the findings reflect the way the information ecosystem has been “under unprecedented attack.” This is territory the Thomson Reuters Foundation knows well: strengthening information integrity sits at the heart of its mission.

The Atlas points to three main forces driving the decline in media freedom:

1. The rise of illiberalism

Illiberal movements, in both autocratic and democratic states, are increasingly using their grip on public broadcasters to skew debate and reframe public conversation on issues like minority rights. Generative AI and social media algorithms are being deployed to spread narratives that shield those in power from scrutiny, while also enabling surveillance and targeting of opponents.

2. Attacks on independent journalism

Political leaders and non-state actors are trying to exert control over independent media by targeting investigative journalists and privately owned outlets through legal, digital, and physical attacks. Meanwhile, the collapse of the advertising-driven business model has concentrated media ownership in the hands of a small number of powerful actors, reducing the volume and independence of reporting.

The growing range of threats to journalists include legislative and regulatory restrictions, manipulation of state advertising budgets, and the acquisition of media outlets by pro-government businesses. Our CEO Zappulla’s commentary for the Atlas also flagged the growing use of spyware to monitor journalists’ private communications and intimidate them.

3. Conflict closing the door on reporting

More frequent and more violent conflicts are pushing press freedom further down. Journalists face growing restrictions on accessing conflict zones and are increasingly becoming targets themselves.

The Russia-Ukraine war accounted for nearly half of all recorded battles in 2025, and Myanmar accounted for 31% of all state-perpetrated violence against civilians. Wartime censorship and self-censorship are weakening war reporting at the very moment it matters most — a point that panellists at the launch event returned to repeatedly.

This is not just a human rights issue, it’s also a business issue

The launch audience was reminded that impunity is not an abstract concern for civil society alone. One panellist put it bluntly: “if they come for human rights, property rights will be next.”

The Atlas backs this up, noting that impunity “cannot be dismissed as exogenous political noise” and that where it thrives, “business conditions deteriorate.” Greater impunity makes repayment less certain, increases political risk, and enables corruption, all of which affects the bottom line.

Impunity is not inevitable

Despite the difficult overall picture, the Atlas also documents real progress in a significant number of countries, evidence that accountability can be rebuilt. Speakers at the launch agreed there is a “crisis of consequences,” in which the institutional guardrails meant to protect societies from impunity are under strain. But the data also show that political will and good policy choices make a measurable difference.

The Foundation’s role in combatting impunity

The Thomson Reuters Foundation has a long-standing commitment to the issues at the heart of the Atlas. The Foundation works to bolster independent media, strengthen access to the law, and foster responsible business, all areas where impunity, left unchecked, causes the most harm.

Through TrustLaw, the Foundation’s global pro bono legal network, NGOs and social enterprises are connected with free legal support and research from top-tier law firms. And through its annual Trust Conference, the Foundation brings together the voices needed to drive accountability forward.

The Foundation did not contribute to the Atlas’s data collection or methodology but has supported the project through participation in the Atlas advisory board and by hosting this year’s London launch.

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Go deeper

• To further explore legal threats impacting media, check out the Foundation’s report, ‘Weaponising the law: Threats to media freedom in Kenya’, and keep an eye out for our forthcoming report examining similar issues in South Africa.
• For media in direct need of legal support, visit our Legal Service for Independent Media.
• The 2025 Atlas findings will be further examined alongside other key indices measuring aspects of democracy, trust, and impunity, in a main stage panel featuring David Miliband at the Foundation’s Trust Conference, to be held from 4th to 5th November in London. Be the first to be notified when registration opens.

This analysis is part of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Insights series. Look out for more data-driven resources from our Insights and Innovation unit, incubating new ideas for the communities we serve, to strengthen free, fair and informed societies.