Our Work

MONITOR

Results from our monitoring of media freedom violations across EU Member States and Candidate Countries are displayed on mappingmediafreedom.org and disseminated throughout ECPMF’s network. Alerts are also posted on the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists (CoE Platform). The ECPMF has been an official partner of the platform since 2019. On “fact-finding missions” to countries where media freedom violations occur, ECPMF conducts on-the-spot research, talking directly to people who are affected by press freedom violations and experts in these countries.

SUPPORT

We work to support journalists, media workers, and press freedom advocates to continue their work in the face of threats or harassment, through legal assistance, a temporary relocation programme, support in exile, and funding for investigative journalism. 

ENGAGE

By campaigning and advocating to influential stakeholders at all levels, the results of the monitoring and investigative journalism and support activities are brought to public attention. Trial monitoring is conducted on the ground if needed. Through its websites, social media, newsletter and solidarity actions ECPMF aims to raise awareness for media freedom violations on a pan-European scale. In addition, ECPMF initiates training, workshops and events to foster exchange and knowledge.

 

ECPMF promotes media literacy through its partnership with Lie Detectors and a special programme (Re:Start Democratic Discourse) in Ukraine. It brings together stakeholders from academia, the media freedom community, the political sphere and the general public. The Media Freedom Resource Centre, produced and maintained in collaboration with Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) is an online repository which collects and categorises media freedom materials and information and serves as a crowd-sourcing tool for a unique and ever-growing database.

Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR)

The situation of press and media freedom in the EU is deteriorating.  This development does not only jeopardise the basic rights of every EU citizen, it puts the physical and psychological safety of journalists at risk.

 

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is a Europe-wide mechanism, which tracks, monitors and reacts to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. Activities of the mechanism are being implemented as an EU project by ECPMF and its partners. The project provides legal and practical support, public advocacy and information to protect journalists and media workers.

Opportunities in Exile

ECPMF is committed to solidarity with persecuted, threatened, and exiled journalists and media workers and supports them according to their individual needs. With this project, we want to expand our offers for journalists in exile with the primary goal of enabling long-term professional future opportunities and social participation.

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PROVAIDE

Independent journalism is a structural prerequisite of democratic public life. Disinformation systematically erodes it through omission, contextual manipulation, and coordinated narrative campaigns that can be difficult to detect with standard editorial tools. A further complication is the hallucination problem inherent to AI systems used for content assessment. Without a secured, verifiable fact base, automated estimates of disinformation risk can themselves produce errors.

 

PROVAIDE is a three-year research and development project that aims to investigate and close this gap. By the end of 2029, the project intends to produce a research tool that helps journalists assess where a piece of information originates, how it has spread, and how likely it is to be part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Whether and to what extent this is technically, methodologically, and practically achievable is one of the central questions the project sets out to address.

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Creating Space: Strengthening Supporters of Human Rights Defenders

Creating Space: Strengthening Supporters of Human Rights Defenders supports people who work with and support journalists and other human rights defenders in exile and at risk. Their work is essential but often emotionally demanding and largely invisible.

The project strengthens an ECPMF-coordinated working group “Support for Supporters in Germany” through supervision, peer exchange, workshops and an annual networking meeting. These formats create spaces for reflection, mutual support and mental health, helping supporters to continue their work without being left alone with the emotional burden.

More information about the working group: https://www.ecpmf.eu/support/support-for-supporters-in-germany/

Project duration: 1 March 2026 – 28 February 2027Funded by: Deutsche Postcode Lotterie

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Past Projects

Voices of Ukraine

Voices of Ukraine was ECPMF’s programme to support Ukrainian media, initiated with the backing of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This programme ran as part of the Hannah-Arendt-Initiative by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, aimed at protecting journalists at risk. The Hannah-Arendt-Initiative supports journalists threatened by the war in Ukraine and contributes to strengthening independent journalism.

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Anti-SLAPP Project

In Europe and the world over, journalists, media workers and critical voices have been targets of Strategic Litigations Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) – vexatious and expensive lawsuits that are used to restrict their work and muzzle press and media freedom. In October 2020, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) started implementing the Justice for Journalists (JFJ) funded project against SLAPPs. The project aims to document, analyse and advocate for anti-SLAPP legislation in Europe.

Project activities