A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that two-thirds of Americans believe press freedom is very important, but only a third say that the media is actually completely free to report the news.

Pew’s study is based on surveys of more than 50,000 adults across 35 countries and covers perceptions of free speech and internet freedom in addition to press freedom.

Overall, a median of 61 percent of adults across 35 countries say having freedom of the press in their country is very important. But only 28 percent say the media are completely free to report the news in their country.

According to the study, 67 percent of U.S. adults said it is “very” important that the media can report the news without government censorship, while 26 percent said it is “somewhat” important.

Education seems to play a big part in how you value freedom of the press. Americans with more education were more likely to say they value press freedom than those with less, a pattern Pew found in 23 other countries.

“I think that kind of demonstrates that a lot of this debate is among the more highly educated people around the world,” said Jacob Poushter, the lead author of the study and Pew’s associate director of global attitudes research.

The most interesting for TVSpy was that the survey saw big shifts in how parties perceive press freedom depending on who is in office.

At the end of Joe Biden’s term in 2024, 29 percent of Republicans said the press is completely free, compared to 42 percent in 2025 with Trump in office. Democrats shifted in the opposite direction: 38 percent said the press is completely free in 2024, compared to just 25 percent this year. 

“People definitely feel freer about press and speech in their country if the people that they like or the party that they support is in power,” Poushter said.

Click here for the full survey.