Liberties Media Freedom Report 2024 and the press release was picked up by 90+ news outlets in nearly 30 countries around the world from France to Ukraine, Pakistan, the U.S. or Germany. See a few featured articles in the Guardian, Politico, Balkan Insight, 444 (Hungarian), Netzpolitik (German) Slovensko Aktualne (Slovakian), ANSA (Italian), STA (Slovenian), nrc (Netherlands), Le Parisien (French).

Press Release, 29/04/2024, Brussels-Berlin - Widespread threats, intimidation and physical violence against journalists, restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information, high concentration of ownership, insufficient ownership transparency rules, threats to the independence of public service media: media freedom still stand perilously close to breaking point in many EU countries and in some need to be almost completely revived, Liberties’ Media Freedom Report 2024 finds.

Based on findings from over two dozen civil liberties organisations from across the EU, the Report reveals that the overarching trends observed in last year’s report continued in 2023, a year when the media landscape was shaped not only by new legislation (Anti-SLAPP Directive, Digital Services Act, European Media Freedom Act), but also by elections (Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia) and regional conflicts (Russia-Ukraine, Middle East).

Key findings of the Report are:

• Journalists across Europe continue to face intimidation, surveillance, attacks and detention. Abusive lawsuits known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are frequently used against journalists in Croatia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.
• The use of Pegasus and Predator spyware continues to be a problem in the EU. In 2023, journalists in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Poland were targeted by spyware surveillance. Also, last year a European Parliament committee report found that national security concerns had been used as a pretext for the use of surveillance software against journalists in several EU countries, including Greece, Hungary and Poland.
• Journalists who are critical of the government may find themselves excluded from press conferences or other official events, or denied access to documents that should be made available to them (Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and the Netherlands).
• Disinformation remains a serious issue in the Czech Republic, Greece and Italy.
• Media ownership concentration is high in Croatia, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, and little was done in 2023 to increase media ownership transparency.
• Levels of public trust in media remain low, and reached an all-time low in the Czech Republic in 2023. Trust levels also declined over the last year in Estonia, Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia, and levels remained low in France and Greece in 2023.

Eva Simon, senior advocacy officer at Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), said:

“Media freedom is clearly in steady decline across the EU in many countries as a result of deliberate harm or neglect by national governments. The implementation and enforcement of the newly adopted European Media Freedom Act, along with the anti-SLAPPs Directive and the Digital Services Act could therefore be crucial for a free and plural media landscape in Europe. Media freedom and democracy and closely interconnected, they go hand in hand. ”

ENDS.