Macedonia has dropped nine places on the World Press Freedom Index of "Reporters Without Borders" - from 36th to 45th. In just two years, nine positions down. That isn't a movement on the table. It's a sign of something structural.

The 2026 report carries wider numbers too. For the first time in 25 years, more than half of the countries in the world are in the "difficult" or "very serious" category for press freedom. Only seven countries have a "good" rating - all of them in northern Europe. Less than 1 percent of the world's population lives in a country with "good" press freedom.

The region isn't in a better position. Serbia is in 104th place - down eight positions. Bosnia and Herzegovina is in 90th. Kosovo, the only one, climbed 15 positions - but from a very low starting point. The whole of the Balkans is moving in the wrong direction.

Why? Because in 110 out of 180 countries, journalists are criminalised by law. That is highlighted as the fastest-deteriorating indicator in the index. It doesn't put any filter on free expression. It simply makes it illegal.

The Macedonian situation in this report is no surprise to anyone working with media every day. Pressure from politics, presumed pull-back from editors, project-based funding that conditions content, the disappearance of independent newsrooms. All of it has been documented over the past five years.

The global context is even harder. In Gaza more than 220 Palestinian journalists have been killed during the conflict - "the most dangerous place in the world for journalists", as the report describes it.

The question for the Balkans is one: will press freedom come back when the parties change, or are we in a deep structural crisis? The 25-year low doesn't come from one government. It comes from a way of working no one wants to change.