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.

Journo News Monitor: an AI-powered study on Turkey’s news media - Reports

Amidst significant technological advancements reshaping the media landscape, notably in Generative AI, Turkey's news media are grappled with mounting political pressure and contended with the adverse impacts of platforms on journalism. This report focuses toward two mediums, Turkish news websites and Google's search engine, as previous studies have identified them as the predominant digital channels for news in Turkey. The aim is to assess the potential biases in Google's algorithm and the coverage of news websites throughout 2023.

Two years on, Ukrainian journalists still pay a heavy price for the war - Article

February 24 marks two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today, the organizations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) reaffirm our solidarity with Ukrainian journalists and call for guarantees of their safety and full freedom to report, as well as a renewed effort to provide the necessary financial and technical support for them to continue their work.

Slovakia: Lack of justice for Kuciak and Kušnírová’s assassination exacerbated by growing attacks on press freedom - Article

On the sixth anniversary of the brutal killing of investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the undersigned organisations renew our call for long-awaited justice for their killings and the imperative to break the cycle of impunity.

Montenegro: Jelena Jovanović, journalist targeted by the mafia - Article

Dealing with organised crime and risking your life, needing police protection just to be able to do your job and live your everyday life. Jelena Jovanović, journalist from the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti, explains what it is like to live under police protection

By Vukašin Obradović

Originally published by OBCT . Also available in ITA and BHS

Serbia, no justice for the Ćuruvija murder - Article

Twenty-five years after the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija and nine after the start of the trial against the four accused of the murder, after a first conviction in 2019 and the repetition of the trial, on Monday 5 February the Court of Appeal of Belgrade acquitted the defendants

By Massimo Moratti

Originally published by OBCT . Also available in ITA

Croatia, journalists on the streets - Article

Hundreds of journalists took to the streets in Zagreb against the Plenković government's amendments to the Criminal Code, which limit the right to report. According to the Association of Croatian Journalists, the prime minister wants to silence investigations into his government's corruption

By Giovanni Vale 

Originally published by OBCT. Also available in ITA

Serbia: media pillory for independent journalists - Article

Verbal attacks and serious threats against two journalists from independent broadcasters, the Cenzolovka portal and even an NGO and a Belgrade court judge raise concerns about the climate of increasingly heavy repression in Serbia

By Massimo Moratti

Originally published by OBCT . Also available in ITA

Report launch: Bosnia and Herzegovina, media freedom in survival mode - Article

OBCT and MFRR partner organizations published the full report from their international press freedom fact-finding mission that took place last October in Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Romania: MFRR to conduct media freedom mission ahead of super electoral year - Article

On 22-25 January, OBCT and IPI - as part of MFRR - will conduct an on-line fact-finding mission to assess the current state of media freedom in the country