Poland: open letter to Members of Parliament in defence of media freedom - Article

OBCT joined a coalition of press freedom and journalism organizations in urgently calling on members of the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s legislature, to oppose a draft bill that would dramatically accelerate media capture in Poland. Here the text of the letter:

Poland: MFRR partners call for stronger EU and U.S. action over 'lex TVN' - Article

The passing of the so-called 'lex TVN' would clearly undermine the ownership structure of U.S.-owned TVN and TVN24, with implications for the government's control over the country's most influential critical broadcaster

Poland: PKN Orlen media purchase violates EU merger rules and media pluralism standards - Article

MFRR supports ARTICLE 19 legal opinion submitted to Warsaw competition court

Poland: Purge of editors begins at Polska Press - Article

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today calls on Poland’s state-controlled oil giant PKN Orlen to immediately halt its interference in the newsrooms and editorial independence of Polska Press media and to fully respect the court’s interim decision suspending its purchase of the publisher pending a review

MFRR raises concerns over increasing meddling in independence of Czech public broadcaster - Article

The partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) express their serious concern over the latest efforts by the ruling ANO party and its allies to further politicise the oversight body of the Czech public broadcaster.

We are worried that the slow-motion yet obvious efforts to stack the Council of the Czech TV (ČT Council) are ultimately aimed at the erosion of the public television’s independence and politically-motivated realignment of its news and opinion programming

MFRR partners raise serious concerns over suspension of funding to Slovenian Press Agency - Article

A temporary halt of state financing for the Slovenian Press Agency is a threat to freedom of information in the country

Country factsheet: Hungary - Article

In 2020, a number of threats to media pluralism and transparency have continued to further marginalise and threaten media freedom across Hungary. Due to the expansion of pro-Government outlets and the weaponisation of government advertising, most Hungarian citizens receive news only from pro-government outlets. With this kind of control, there is no need to directly attack critical journalists, as they are excluded from the media market. Moreover, the coronavirus crisis had arguably the biggest effect on media freedom

EU must act on Hungary media market distortion - Article

A coalition of 16 press freedom, freedom of expression and journalists‘ organisations have urged EU Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager to act on complaints that the Hungarian government has violated EU state aid rules to undermine media pluralism

Spain: a new law against fact-checking - Article

An analysis by Javier Luque, IPI Head of Digital Communications, for Media Freedom Rapid Response: polarization and attempts by far-right party to smear fact-checkers and journalists corner press freedom in the country

Media capture: Toolkit for 21st century autocrats - Article

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The 8th of a series of thematic itineraries to explore the Resource Centre on Media Freedom through a curated aggregation of contents.