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

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

Spain: Energy company launches €17.6 million SLAPP lawsuit against El Confidencial - Article

MFRR partners condemn the vexatious SLAPP lawsuit against the newspaper El Confidencial by the Spanish electricity company Iberdrola, which is claiming €17.6 million for alleged “reputational damage”. The MFRR partners see the lawsuit as another example of the urgent need for the introduction of anti-SLAPP legislation at the EU and national levels and reform of the current legal provisions on protection of honour and reputation in line with international freedom of expression standards

Turkey: a call to release Sedef Kabaş - Article

We joined the call of the International Press Institute, signed by other 25 human rights and journalists’ organizations, to ask for the immediate release of journalist Sedef Kabaş following her late-night arrest on January 22 and for an end to the judicial harassment of independent media

Edelman Trust Barometer 2022 - Reports

A country report about trust in Germany

Poland: Media freedom groups urge President Duda to veto ‘Lex-TVN’ - Article

We signed a letter to President Duda urging him to apply a presidential veto to the so-called "Lex-TVN". The bill is not a principled and proportionate effort to protect the Polish information landscape, but a way to undermine one particular outlet that is part of a wider effort to “repolonise” the media

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

News Media Europe - Stakeholders

News Media Europe represents the interests of publishers of newspapers and news media on all platforms.

News Media Europe includes members from Belgium (Flanders), Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. The associations from Hungary, Lithuania and Romania have an associated membership.

CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT On the firing of UN human rights whistleblower Emma Reilly - Article

Together with other 39 organizations, OBCT co-signed a statement in support of whistleblower Emma Reilly, a few days after she was fired by the UN