Albania: Letter to Prime Minister Edi Rama from international press freedom organisations - Article

OBCT signed a letter addressed to Albanian PM Edi Rama in protest against a decision to ban journalists from attending press conferences after they asked challenging questions. Such an arbitrary restriction seriously affects the ability of the press to carry out its watchdog role. Albanian translation is available below

A letter to the incoming Czech Presidency on the European Media Freedom Act - Article

Ahead of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, we signed a letter to the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala regarding the forthcoming European Media Freedom Act

Media Pluralism Monitor final conference 2022 - Article

The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom presents the results of the 2022 Media Pluralism Monitor, the yearly study that assesses the health of media pluralism in the EU27, Albania, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey

Bulgaria: the media, law, and freedom of information - Legal Resources

Interview with Nelly Ognyanova, a leading Bulgarian expert on media law, by Francesco Martino, OBCT

Czech Republic: Independence of public broadcasters must be insulated against future attacks - Article

Recent boost in press freedom should drive legislative reform for public service media

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national public broadcaster faces closure - Article

The EFJ, EBU and SEEMO have all called for an urgent resolution to save the national broadcaster and its workers from financial ruin

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

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

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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.