Africans broadly express support for their right to join any organisation and for the media’s freedom from censorship and its responsibility to report on government mistakes, the latest Afrobarometer (www.Afrobarometer.org) Pan-Africa Profile (https://apo-opa.co/4vjzCDv) shows.
Yet their experience of these freedoms is highly uneven and, in many contexts, eroding, increasingly constrained by the very governments that are formally committed to protecting them. The new report, based on 50,961 interviews across 38 African countries in 2024/2025, shows that while many citizens say they can associate freely and vote without pressure, only 13 of the countries have majorities who feel “completely” free to say what they think.
Perceived freedom of speech has declined over the past decade, and only a slim majority of Africans consider their media free.
Key findings
- On average across 38 countries, more than six in 10 Africans (64%) affirm the right to join any organisation of their choice (Figure 1).
- Clear majorities support media freedom: 65% endorse the media’s right to publish without government control, and 72% say the media should investigate and report on government mistakes and corruption.
- About two-thirds (65%) of citizens say they feel “somewhat” or “completely” free to say what they think (Figure 2).
- In 25 of the 38 surveyed countries, fewer than half of citizens feel “completely” free to say what they think. The sense of complete freedom of speech is especially scarce in Eswatini (18%), Togo (15%), Comoros (8%), and Congo-Brazzaville (7%).
- Across 28 countries surveyed consistently since 2014, assessments of this freedom have declined by 7 percentage points (Figure 3).
- Strong majorities say they feel “somewhat” or “completely” free to join any political organisation they want (77%) and to vote for their preferred candidate without feeling pressured (86%) (Figure 4).
- The picture is starkly different in Comoros and Congo-Brazzaville, where citizens report some of the lowest levels of freedom to associate and to vote.
- A slim majority (53%) see the media in their country as “somewhat” or “completely” free to report without government interference (Figure 5).
- Perceived media freedom declined significantly in 20 of the 30 countries surveyed consistently between 2019 and 2025.
Afrobarometer surveys
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, nonpartisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Ten survey rounds in up to 45 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 10 surveys (2024/2025) cover 38 countries.
Afrobarometer’s National Partners conduct face-to-face interviews with nationally representative samples of adults in the language of the respondent’s choice that yield country-level results with margins of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afrobarometer.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Iberi
Communications coordinator for East Africa
Email: diberi@afrobarometer.org
Telephone: +254 725 674 457
Visit us online at www.Afrobarometer.org.
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