Call for withdrawal of Slovakia’s repressive broadcast law - Article

Slovak government attempts to take over the public broadcaster

Journalists and media freedom groups call for the urgent withdrawal of a proposed legislation allowing political control over public-service media in Slovakia. The bill threatens independent information, especially before the June European Parliament elections, contradicting the recently voted EU's Media Freedom Act

LETTER TO EU - Press freedom organisations call for urgent EU action to prevent political take-over of Slovak public media - Article

OBCT joins international journalists’ and media freedom organisations in expressing its concern to EU leaders over Slovak new public broadcaster's law

Coalition calls for effective implementation as the Parliament adopts the EMFA - Article

OBCT, as part of the EU Media Advocacy Working Group, welcomes the adoption of the European Media Freedom Act by the European Parliament and calls for an effective implementation of the new regulation

Georgia: MFRR partners denounce smear campaign against journalist by speaker of the Parliament - Article

The partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today express concern at the discrediting of a prominent Georgian journalist by Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. The comments come amid a broader wave of smear campaigns against independent media in Georgia by Papuashvili and others

SafeJournalists and MFRR: Physical Confrontation with Journalist in Serbia is Unacceptable and Must be Sanctioned - Article

SafeJournalists Network and the Media Freedom Rapid Response strongly condemn the behavior of the local authorities in Indjija, who forcibly removed the journalist Verica Marincic from the municipality building and prevented her from doing her job. We appeal to the competent authorities to investigate this incident in which the journalist was injured

Safeguarding women journalists in the digital age - Article

On International Women’s Day, MFRR coalition partners publish a critical examination of attacks against women journalists in the European Union and candidate countries

Italy: MFRR partners strongly condemn investigation into Domani journalists - Article

OBCT and MFRR partners note with concern that Italian press freedom has fallen under renewed pressure. We call for the preliminary investigation of three Domani journalists to be immediately dropped, and we urge Italian authorities to respect the confidentiality of journalistic sources in line with international and European press freedom standards

Türkiye: reverse a critically hostile environment - Reports

The country increasingly turning into a hostile environment for freedom of expression and for journalists, human rights defenders and civil society

Press Freedom in Europe: Time to Turn the Tide - Reports

On Tuesday 5 March 2024, the Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists launched its annual report "Press Freedom in Europe: Time to Turn the Tide", written by the Platform’s coalition of fifteen press freedom NGOs and journalists associations. It takes stock of key areas of law, policy and practices affecting media freedom and safety of journalists in Europe and identifies actions required to improve effective protection of journalists.

Türkiye: Big tech should protect free speech and resist state censorship - Article

Ahead of Türkiye’s municipal elections on 31 March 2024, 22 rights groups and journalists’ organisations jointly call on social media platforms to uphold the free expression rights of their users and resist state censorship. They should also fully disclose all government requests to restrict accounts or content, and be transparent about informal government pressure to restrict content on their platforms.