The State of Democracy in 2021 - Reports

The report monitors ten issues that are essential for evaluating the state of democracy and rule of law in a country. Among them, it analyses access to information of public interest, public media funding, threats and harassment against journalists and activists, freedom of association and of assembly in Romania

Fifteen Organizations Condemn Lawsuit against Forensic News, deeming it a SLAPP - Article

The undersigned organisations express their serious concern at the legal proceedings that have been brought against investigative journalist Scott Stedman, his U.S. media company Forensic News, and three of his colleagues

Justice for Journalists - Stakeholders

Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) is a London-based non-governmental organization. The foundation was created in August 2018 by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of the Open Russia pro-democracy movement, an Amnesty International recognized prisoner of conscience and Putin’s most prominent critic, together with his former business partner, philanthropist and member of the Free Russia Forum’s standing committee Leonid Nevzlin.

JFJ funds journalistic investigations into violent crimes against media workers and helps professional and citizen journalists to mitigate their risks. JFJ’s activity consists of three main components:

• Grants for investigating violent crimes against media workers;
• Risk mapping via monitoring, analysing and publicising attacks against media workers;
• Risk management and prevention by organising security and safety trainings for non-English-speaking media workers in our Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy .

Albania: news outlets faced cyber attacks following reports about Mayor of Tirana - Article

Cyber-attacks on news outlets believed to be in relation to their reporting on Tirana’s Mayor Erion Veliaj and the appointment of government loyalist Endri Fuga to lead the Media and Information Agency add to existing challenges for media freedom in Albania. We call for a swift and effective investigation into these attacks and condemn the appointment of Fuga to head the newly established agency

Montenegro: Impunity must end for shooting of journalist Olivera Lakić - Article

MFRR praises cross-party approval of legislation strengthening protection of journalists

Netherlands: International mission on the safety of Dutch journalists - Article

As part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) are organising an international media freedom mission to the Netherlands. With the mission, the consortium members want to map the decreasing security of journalists in the country, but also highlight the existence of security mechanisms for journalists such as the PersVeilig (Press Safe) established in 2019. The mission will be held at the beginning of 2022

Serbia: Wave of lawsuits against investigative portal KRIK chills media freedom - Article

In recent months, KRIK’s newsroom has been targeted by ten different procedures requesting a total of 90 million dinars in damages. MFRR partners believe that these cases are a form of SLAPPs and demand urgent actions to address the growing phenomenon in the country 

Germany: MFRR expresses concern over rising attacks against journalists covering protests - Article

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today express their concern about the increasing number of attacks against journalists across Germany, particularly in the context of anti-vaccine demonstrations. We call for better safety measures and protection as well as thorough investigations of attacks against journalists covering such demonstrations. Moreover, preventative measures are needed to stop such attacks from happening. Finally, we encourage media workers to report press and media freedom violations

Free to Think 2021. Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project - Reports

The seventh installment of an annual report by Scholars at Risk’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. The report analyzes 332 attacks on higher education communities in 65 countries and territories around the world between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021

Malta: need to amend a legal notice about privacy - Article

We co-signed a letter to Malta authorities concerning the possibility to erase personal data from court decisions: the principle of publicity of court proceedings, including the verdict, as protected under European human rights law and extensively developed in the European Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence, is an essential means for realising the right to a fair trial and maintaining public confidence in the judiciary