The global decline in press freedom is undermining action to protect nature at a time when reliable information is more urgent than ever. But far-right populism and democratic backsliding are increasingly undermining journalism.
The collapse of the media industry’s business model has already muted in-depth reporting on climate impact and scrutiny of environmental policy. Journalists also face pressure from corporate interests and their political patrons.
All this as the planet itself is in the throes of the triple environmental calamity of global warming, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This coincides with other crises happening in parallel — democratic decay, suppression of press freedom, and social media disinformation.
The solution lies in more effective global coordination and better domestic enforcement of environmental protection. Prerequisites for that are a just international order and accountable leadership which are not possible without a rules-based democratic order and an independent press.
WORLD TRENDS
As the most recent UNESCO World Trends Report pointed out, freedom of the press and an open society are crucial for climate action. Not just journalists, but journalism itself needs to be protected because without it, democracy does not stand a chance.
Across the world elected authoritarians have become fossil fools, undermining democratic institutions and rolling back climate safeguards. There are also outliers like China which may not be democratic in the classical sense, but is leading the way globally in the energy transition to renewables.
A survey last year of people in 77 countries showed that 80% of those polled support government action on climate change. Three-fourths of environmental journalists say their work has impact, but nearly a third faced threats for their reporting, and 60% suffered psychological distress.
Another survey of 468 climate scientists by Global Witness found that 39% had suffered online abuse. In Australia, many climate researchers had simply stopped sharing findings on social media. Science is being silenced.
Big Tech platforms have subverted the role free media is supposed to play in a democracy. Social media may allow solidarity-building across activist groups, but it is a double-edge sword that fans denial, fake news and trolling.
This is making it difficult to raise awareness about climate issues and solutions. Digital platforms have been designed specifically to profit from algorithms pushing content to monetise engagement in the attention economy. But Big Tech has shown little interest in self-regulation — it profits too much from lies and conspiracies.
This is most apparent in the way the algorithms are designed to handle content about climate change. A few deniers are programmed to be allowed disproportionate exposure, while rational voices are suppressed.
Climate denial content on social media globally doubled between 2021 and 2024. However, while ‘old denial’ that rejected climate change outright declined, it is increasingly replaced by ‘new denial’.
With super storms, droughts, heat waves, wildfires and melting icecaps now so common, ‘new denial’ grudgingly accepts that climate change is real but falsely argues that it is part of the natural warming cycle, that there is nothing wrong if planet gets ‘a bit warmer’, or that investment in renewable energy is unnecessary when we can keep “drill baby drill”.
The messenger is to blame. Online platforms amplify sensationalism, conspiracy theories and denialist content because that is how they make money. The algorithms harden opinion — either making users more hardline or preaching to the converted.
“Eroding press freedom, self-censorship by journalists, and weaker accountability mechanisms have reduced the media’s capacity to investigate environmental issues and hold governments and corporations to account,” said Catalina Botero, a Colombian activist and lawyer, at a recent Festival Gabo conference in Bogota.
Disinformation and denialism were tactics once used by Big Tobacco to suppress research that proved the link between smoking and lung cancer. Cigarette multinationals deliberately discredited journalists, paid pseudo-scientists to sow doubt, and bought public relations. Sound familiar? Petroleum companies today are using the same playbook.
It is getting late for global and state-level action to avert worsening climate calamities. That information can only come from an independent media and an online ecosystem that is not weaponised by deniers.
World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development: Journalism Shaping a World At Peace
Global Report 2022/2025
UNESCO, Paris 2025
Kunda Dixit