Liberties Rule of Law Report 2022 - Reports

The Liberties Rule of Law Report 2022 is the third annual report on the state of rule of law in the European Union, presenting country and trend reports on democratic records by civil society organisations across the European Union. Published by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, it provides information and analysis from the ground of the state of the rule of law in 17 EU countries

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

Lithuania: investigative journalism and privacy - Article

Today, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partner organisations and the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation have written to Director Raimondas Andrijauskas and Deputy Director Danguolė Morkūnienė of the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate (SDPI)’s to express concern at their attempted obstruction of investigative project “Karštos Pėdos” (“Hot Feet”)’s journalistic activity

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

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

The authorities vs. the citizens. ‘In the crosshairs’ namely SLAPP Polish-style - Reports

Polish independent news service OKO.press, supported by the Rafto Foundation, prepared a report about SLAPPs. The report is based on 21 interviews with activists and lawyers, as well as discussions with activists, including in courts and at police stations, not only with the accused and charged, but also with those who came to demonstrate their support

Serbia: MFRR welcomes renewed convictions for murder of Slavko Ćuruvija - Article

We joined our MFRR partners in welcoming the confirmed guilty verdicts for the murder in 1999 of journalist and editor-in-chied Slavko Ćuruvija. The decision represents an important step in the long fight against impunity for the killing of journalists in Serbia

State of SLAPPs in Serbia - Reports

The latest report by ARTICLE 19, the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human Rights, and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), analyses the provisions that are most commonly misused to file SLAPPs, strategic lawsuits against public participation, in Serbia. The report highlights patterns from multiple cases brought against journalists and activists by public officials and other powerful individuals in the past 10 years

Needs and Gaps Brief No. 1: Italy - Article

The first of a series of briefs presenting the results of the forthcoming Needs and Gaps analysis

Curated by Maria Francesca Rita

OSCE South East Europe Media Conference (SEEMC) “Journalism in times of crisis” - Reports

The two-day conference was held in a hybrid format in Tirana on 11-12 October 2021, and was co-organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) and the OSCE Presence in Albania, with the support of other OSCE field operations in the region

Poland: Journalist must not be jailed for refusing to disclose source - Article

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today call on the District Prosecutor's Office in the Polish city of Gdansk to drop its legal case against Gazeta Wyborcza reporter Katarzyna Włodkowska and to respect the journalist’s right of source confidentiality protected under the European Convention of Human Rights