Reports and papers

Analyses on specific aspects related to press and media freedom, performed and published by research centres, non-governmental organizations and public bodies

Internet and electoral campaigns

Rules on electoral campaigning were written for traditional media. This report examines how the shift to digital media affects the effectiveness of these rules and suggests updates

read more Social media Fake news and disinformation United Kingdom Council of Europe Member States France Spain Ireland Big data Americas

Challenges to Media Freedom: A view from Europe

Drawing on the findings of two projects awarded by the European Commission, the paper examines the sources of the threats hindering media freedom in Europe

read more EU Member States European policies and legislation Political pressure Media ownership Media freedom


Turkey: Freedom of Expression in Jeopardy

The report, written for English PEN by two human rights experts, provides an overview of the state of freedom of expression in Turkey after the attempted coup in July 2016 and engages in a critical evaluation of the violations of the rights of writers, publishers, academics and within academic institutions

read more Freedom of expression Media freedom Turkey Council of Europe Member States

A multi-dimensional approach to disinformation

This report is the result of the work done by the High Level Group (HLEG) convened by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel to advise the European Commission on policy initiatives to counter fake news and disinformation online in Europe

read more Fake news and disinformation EU Member States Transparency

The spread of true and false news online

MIT researchers investigated the difference in the diffusion of true and false news on Twitter

read more Fake news and disinformation Social media

Gender Equality in the EU’s Digital and Media Sectors

This briefing by the European Parliamentary Research Service (March 2018) provides updated background data showing the existing gender divide in the digital and media sectors across the European Union

read more Media and gender Freedom of expression Media pluralism

Responding to “hate speech”: Comparative overview of six EU countries

Legal framework, practices and regulations related to ‘hate speech’ in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom

read more Hate speech Austria Germany Hungary Poland Italy United Kingdom

Common sense wanted. Resilience to “post-truth” and its predictors in the new Media Literacy Index 2018

The Media Literacy Index 2018 shows that there is a clearly geographic pattern in the potential of resilience to post-truth phenomenon: the countries with a better performance are in the North and Northwest of Europe, as opposed to the countries in the Southeastern Europe. Countries like Hungary, Italy and Greece are in a middle cluster

read more Media literacy EU Member States Western Balkans Trust in media

United Kingdom (England and Wales): Responding to ‘hate speech’

The report was produced as part of “Media Against Hate”, a Europe-wide campaign initiated by the European Federation of Journalists and a coalition of civil society organisations

read more Hate speech United Kingdom Media freedom Freedom of expression