On Tuesday 5 March 2024, the Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists launched its report “Press Freedom in Europe: Time to Turn the Tide”. The report is written by the Platform’s Partner Organisations, a coalition of fifteen press freedom NGOs and journalists associations (European Federation of Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, Association of European Journalists, Article 19,
Reporters Without Borders, The Committee to Protect Journalists, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute, International News Safety Institute, The Rory Peck Trust, The European Broadcasting Union, PEN International, European Centre for Press & Media Freedom, Free Press Unlimited, Justice for Journalists Foundation).
The 2024 report assesses the major issues impairing press freedom in
Europe: threats and intimidation, detentions, restrictive legislation, SLAPPs
(Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), i.e., abusive lawsuits, media
capture, and attacks on public service media. It highlights the threat of increasingly active criminal organisations as well as media bashing by politicians, which
may be used as an alibi for violence against journalists. It introduces the so-called
systemic threats – criminal defamation and the limits on the independence of
media regulators – which affect more extensively press freedom. This year it
added a review of the social and economic insecurity affecting journalists as
well as the “new threats” looming over the profession, in particular artificial
intelligence, the impact of social networks, disinformation, the repression of
the coverage of climate change – or environment-related events – and a political atmosphere dominated by radicalisation and polarisation, hostile to the
exercise of free and independent journalism.
Read the full report here