Romania: Publication of stolen pictures of Emilia Șercan and leak from criminal investigation must be investigated swiftly and independently - Article

Ten European and international press freedom and freedom of expression organisations, members of the MFRR and their partners, have reacted to the harassment of Emilia Șercan, expressing serious concerns about the case and its implications for media freedom in Romania. Today, the ten organisations sent an open letter to the Romanian authorities calling for swift and independent investigations. The letter recalls that the threats and harassment of Șercan are set against a background of recent aggression and undue pressure against journalists and media workers in Romania coming from politicians, prosecutors, police, and military officers

Remembering Giorgos Karaivaz: One year later, targeted killing remains unresolved - Article

MFRR partners call for progress and transparency in investigation

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

Media Capture in Bulgaria: Hidden Alliances and Vested Interests - Reports

Third report as part of IPI’s campaign on media capture: a new report on media freedom and independence in Bulgaria. The report explores the capture of media by vested business and political interests and the corrupting relationship between media owners and politicians as they compete for power and profit

Media Capture in the Czech Republic: lessons learnt from the Babiš era and how to rebuild defences against Media Capture - Reports

This IPI report examines growing pressure on the public-service broadcaster Czech Television (CT) under the Babiš government. In this light, the report looks at key reform proposals to strengthen Czech public media’s defenses against future attempts to compromise its independence, and it also details how government advertising funds were directed to benefit Mafra media owned by Babiš and recommends policy reform to end the abuse of government funds to reward positive media coverage

Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on promoting a favourable environment for quality journalism in the di... - Legal Resources

Adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 17 March 2022 at the 1429^th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies

Poland: Dismissal of SLAPP-targeted journalist Grzegorz Rzeczkowski sets concerning precedent - Article

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) extend their support to journalist Grzegorz Rzeczkowski who faces four SLAPPs and was recently dismissed by Polityka, one of the major independent weekly magazines in Poland, without a transparent reason

UN-EU High-level Policy Dialogue on safety of journalists and media freedom - Article

Under the title "Protecting the safety of journalists, media freedom and pluralism in the European Union: challenges and opportunities", a full day of discussions and meetings will analyze the state of media freedom and safety of journalists, collecting recommendations and stories. On 24 February 2022, from 9:30 to 18:00, the event will be both in-person in Brussels, and online

European Media and Platform Policy (EuromediApp) - Stakeholders

European Media and Platform Policy (EuromediApp) is a Jean Monnet network dedicated to studying, analysing and discussing benefits and challenges of digital platforms in Europe and world-wide.

By bringing together knowledge and research capacity from all over Europe and beyond, EuromediApp provides space for national and transnational deliberation on how future digital services should and will be governed. Working papers, teaching material, workshops, conferences and dedicated schools for advanced students are our working tools.

EuromediApp operates for three years (2020 – 2023) along three modules:

1. European political democracy (inclusion and exclusion, diversity and uniformity, trust and distrust);
2. Quality of European (news) ecology, including journalism, individualised procedures of political information, populism, polarisation and depolarisation, personalisation, scandalisation, information/propaganda/misinformation; and
3. European governance models of digital media and the internet by media/platform companies and governments, utopian and dystopian views of digital media and democracy.

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