News

Liberties Report 2025: Democratic Decline Deepens

20/03/2025

The Rule of Law Report by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe highlights a serious deterioration in the rule of law across Europe in 2024. The report ranks Italy alongside Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia among the countries facing the most critical issues

Source: CILD - Coalizione Italiana Diritti Civili

Romania: Answers needed over surveillance of investigative journalist

20/03/2025

Disturbing revelations about the physical surveillance and wiretapping of Victor Ilie, Romanian investigative journalist, by the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).

Open Letter: Surveillance warrants targeting journalists are dangerous for democracy

18/03/2025

OBCT, alongside free expression organizations, Romanian journalists and media outlets, condemns the surveillance of journalists by Romanian prosecutors as a violation of press freedom

Originally published in Romanian and English by ActiveWatch and the Center for independent Journalism

Serbia: One year of unpunished attacks on journalist Dinko Gruhonjić, culture of impunity must end

14/03/2025

The members of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium and partner organisations of the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform are deeply concerned about the ongoing year-long persecution campaign against journalist Dinko Gruhonjić, programme Director of the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV) and Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad

SafeJournalists Network and Media Freedom Rapid Response: TikTok ban in Albania threatens freedom of expression ahead of general elections

11/03/2025

SafeJournalists Network (SJN), the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners, and civil society organizations express serious concern regarding the Albanian Council of Ministers' decision to suspend nationwide access to the TikTok platform for 12 months

MFRR and SJN condemn adoption of foreign agent legislation in Bosnia’s entity Republika Srpska

05/03/2025

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners and SafeJournalists Network (SJN) strongly condemn the adoption of legislation in the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina which will establish a "special registry” of NGOs, many of which are independent media

Serbia: MFRR and SJN urgently call to stop targeting and intimidating journalists

03/03/2025

OBCT, together with its partners from the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and the SafeJournalists Network (SJN), strongly condemns the increasing and systematic attacks on journalists and NGOs in Serbia

Ukraine: MFRR partners stand with journalists, 3 years since start of full-scale invasion

24/02/2025

On 24 February 2025, Ukraine marks three years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. While the current scale of Russian attacks against journalists cannot be compared to that at the start of the war, they remain worryingly high and persistent

Croatia: Tackling political pressure, legal challenges and precarity to revive media freedom

24/02/2025

Outdated media laws, compromised public media independence, SLAPPs, as well as mounting economic, political, and physical pressures are undermining journalism and media freedom in Croatia, as outlined in the latest Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) report

Slovakia: Media freedom under threat on seventh anniversary of Ján Kuciak murder

21/02/2025

On the seventh anniversary of the murder of Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today mark the date with the publication of a new report examining ongoing threats to media freedom and the safety of journalists