Bulgaria Minister urged to drop defamation lawsuit - Article

Media Freedom organizations call on Bulgarian Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov to withdraw charges against two investigative journalists of the Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data (BIRD)

Serbia: MFRR and SafeJournalists call on state institutions to address threats to journalists - Article

OBCT joins MFRR and SafeJournalists Network's partners in expressing concern about the rising threats targeting Serbian presenter Nenad Kulacin and in urging authorities to persecute the perpetrators

Sara Manisera: the challenges of investigative journalism - Article

Investigative journalists, in addition to the risks of the trade, often incur libel lawsuits, SLAPPs, etc.. Especially if, like Sara Manisera, they deal with sensitive issues such as organised crime. We interviewed her

By Sielke Kelner

Originally published by OBCT, also available in ITA

Media pluralism in a legal limbo in Serbia - Article

The allocation of national broadcasting frequencies in Serbia highlights the lack of transparency and pluralism in the sector. Frequencies are only awarded to government-friendly media. Concerns have been expressed by both the European Commission and the European Parliament

By Massimo Moratti

Originally published by OBCT, also available in ITA

Fighting Words: Journalism Under Assault in Central and Eastern Europe - Reports

The report examines the state of press freedom in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on the results of a survey of almost a hundred journalists, the paper suggests possible measures to support independent journalism

Freedom and the Media: a Downward Spiral - Reports

The Freedom in the World report shows that free press is declining around the world and that this threatens the status of democracy. Freedom of the Media is under attack not only in historically Not Free countries, but also in some of the most influential Free democracies in the world

Informational Autocrats - Academic Sources

The paper analyses the role of the media in establishing and maintaining modern-day authoritarian regimes. The authors offer a formal account of how such systems work, emphasising the importance of the gap in political knowledge between the “informed elite” and the general public as a key element of informational autocracy

Bulgaria 2017: State of Journalism and Freedom of Speech - Reports

The annual report by the Association of European Journalists highlights that the "culture of pressure" in Bulgarian media is on the rise

State Sponsored Trolling - Reports

The report published by the Institute for the Future explores how governments are deploying disinformation as part of broader digital harassment campaigns

Freedom on the Net 2017: Turkey Country Report - Reports

Although Internet freedom in Turkey has been gradually decreasing over the last years, it went through a sharp decline in 2017