MFRR Summit

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed Europe and media freedom is not immune. In 2020, 1 out of 4 alerts published on Mapping Media Freedom were connected to the pandemic in some way. As the virus spread, it gave cover for media freedom violations across the entire continent. Governments’ responses to COVID-19 have sparked large and […]

Threats to journalists, media workers and outlets come from a myriad of sources. Some are easy to track, others are cloaked in bureaucratic and legal processes aimed at obscuring scrutiny of attempts to undermine media pluralism and consolidate state power. Governments across Europe have perfected a way to target media freedom through the capture of […]

To ensure their safety, oftentimes journalists and media workers need police protection. But what happens when this protection is not forthcoming or is inadequate? Even worse, what happens when the police officers themselves are the source of the threat to the journalist? We cannot talk about media freedom in Europe, without talking about the actions […]

2020 was a year of protests. Whether in response to government policies towards the COVID-19 pandemic, opposing structural racism and misogyny, states’ economic and social policies, actions of the police and a range of constitutional tensions, protests have erupted across Europe. However, the same right that protects the rights of protesters has been put under […]

To know the threats that journalists and media workers across Europe face, we need to be able to capture information about violations in real time. As part of the MFRR, Mapping Media Freedom (MMF) is an innovative platform that maps media freedom violations across Europe. In 2020, Mapping Media Freedom published 378 alerts documenting violations […]

Laws that target media freedom reconfigure the landscape away from journalists, media workers and outlets. Throughout 2020, countries across Europe, oftentimes using the COVID-19 pandemic as cover, took to creating, reforming or rescinding different laws with an aim to undermine journalistic safety, media pluralism, as well as the transparency and accountability of those in power. […]

In Poland, Gazeta Wyborcza has been threatened with over 55 legal threats and OKO.Press have also received an avalanche of legal threats from wealthy business people, companies and politicians. In Slovenia, Necenzurirano is facing 39 legal threats, solely for doing their job. The use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and other vexatious lawsuits […]

Online harassment can take a myriad of forms and shapes – and the emotional and professional impact on targeted journalists can, too. In this workshop we will introduce some of the tactics used to silence and intimidate independent reporters and discuss the best strategies to address them. We will do so using an analytical approach […]

Fake news purveyors, enemies of the state, infiltrators, traitors and a litany of misogynistic, homophobic and racist epithets are so commonly hurled at journalists and media workers they form part of the landscape they are expected to navigate as part of their daily professional lives. The normalisation of online harassment, threats and smear campaigns, reinforced […]

2020 was the first year of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which monitors, tracks and responds to media freedom violations across EU Member States and Candidate Countries (including the UK). Throughout the year, the consortium led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), including ARTICLE 19, the European Federation of Journalists […]