Croatia, the assault on the local press - Article

2024 is the year of elections for Croatia: European, political and presidential elections will take place between next June and December. And with the electoral competitions, the race for control of the local media, particularly the regional ones, is gaining ground in a hardly transparent way

By Giovanni Vale 

Originally published by OBCT. Also available in ITA and BHS

The State of State Media 2022 - A global analysis of the editorial independence of state media based on the state media matrix (2022 edition) - Reports

“The State of State Media” is published by the Media and Journalism Research Center. The study analyses the level of independence of public media outlets in all continents

Poland: Letter to the Ombudsman in defence of Polska Press - Article

OBCT joins a group of media freedom organisations in a letter to the Polish Ombudsman to urge him to reconsider its decision to refrain from appealing the acquisition of Polska Press by the state-controlled oil company PKN Orlen

Media Pluralism Monitor 2022 - Monitoring tool

The Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) is a tool developed by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom to assess the risks for media pluralism in 32 European countries (27 EU Member States and 5 candidate countries). In its 2022 edition, it confirms the findings of the previous years

Saving the News - Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve Freedom of Speech - Books

American legal scholar Martha Minow poses timely questions related to the need of government support aimed at ensuring the independence and vitality of the free press

Country factsheet: Hungary - Article

In 2020, a number of threats to media pluralism and transparency have continued to further marginalise and threaten media freedom across Hungary. Due to the expansion of pro-Government outlets and the weaponisation of government advertising, most Hungarian citizens receive news only from pro-government outlets. With this kind of control, there is no need to directly attack critical journalists, as they are excluded from the media market. Moreover, the coronavirus crisis had arguably the biggest effect on media freedom

PPF Group and media ownership: an exchange between MFRR and the company - Article

The prompt answer of international investment group PPF to the letter of concern signed by international press freedom organizations is quite generic and leaves many issues open, but it is a first step forward

2020 World Press Freedom Index - Monitoring tool

Compared to 2019 Index, the proportion of countries where the press freedom situation is “good” has remained stable, while the percentage of countries where the situation is “very bad” has increased by two points

Media capture: Toolkit for 21st century autocrats - Article

©Text Vector/Shutterstock

The 8th of a series of thematic itineraries to explore the Resource Centre on Media Freedom through a curated aggregation of contents. 

2019 World Press Freedom Index - Monitoring tool

Only 24% of the 180 countries and territories considered are classified as “good” (coloured white on the Press Freedom Map) or “fairly good” (yellow), as opposed to 26% last year. These are the main findings of this year’s Index by Reporters Without Borders