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Mapping Media Freedom a Four-Month Snapshot

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Mapping Media Freedom a Four-Month Snapshot MAPPING MEDIA FREEDOM A FOUR-MONTH SNAPSHOT Monitoring Report EFJ – IPI – ECPMF | March 2020 - June 2020 Introduction Content The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) dom in EU Member States and Candidate Introduction ................................................................. 3 launched in March 2020 at a moment of Countries. It provides legal and practical unprecedented instability and uncertain- support, public advocacy and information Country-by-Country Analysis (IPI) ........................... 14 ty across Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic to protect journalists and media workers. Bulgaria ....................................................................... 14 brought with it a new set of challenges for The MFRR is organised by a consortium led Hungary ....................................................................... 15 state and non-state entities to ensure the by the European Centre for Press and Me- Italy .............................................................................. 16 health, security, rights and economic well dia Freedom (ECPMF) including ARTICLE being of European populations could be pro- 19, the European Federation of Journalists Poland .......................................................................... 17 tected. As the pandemic spread across the (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Insti- Slovenia ....................................................................... 18 region, national governments and European tute for Applied Informatics at the Univer- Turkey .......................................................................... 19 institutions moved to respond in a number sity of Leipzig (InfAI), International Press of predictable and unpredictable ways that Institute (IPI) and CCI/Osservatorio Balcani Country-by-Country Analysis (EFJ) ......................... 20 continue to highlight the complex interplay e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT). The project France .......................................................................... 20 of approaches and priorities across the con- is co-funded by the European Commission. Germany ...................................................................... 21 tinent. This requirement to react to such a sizable and significant crisis resulted in a The project’s first four-months of work has Serbia .......................................................................... 22 plethora of responses, whether through the seen a wide range of threats against me- Sweden........................................................................ 23 reallocation of funds, legislation changes, dia freedom, including policy-makers and government officials singling out journalists United Kingdom .......................................................... 24 responses to popular movements and even at times, constitutional amendments that for harassment, the use of vexatious legal COVID-19 - Response and Impact (IPI) .................... 26 reconfigured the relationship between the action to stifle independent scrutiny, or at- Threats against journalists and media workers state and its people. A result of this is that tacks on media workers by protesters and at protests and demonstrations (EFJ) ................ 30 the pandemic, while demonstrating a dan- police officers. The sources of these attacks are as varied as the attacks themselves, Conclusion .................................................................. 35 gerous and immediate threat to life across Europe, has also reaffirmed the importance with police and state security officials, un- of an independent, well-funded and free known individuals and protesters, politicians media to counter disinformation, challenge and private companies prominent in an ap- entrenched power and secrecy and inform parent shared goal to undermine a free me- the public across Europe. But with this in- dia and limit the public’s right to know. Few creased need for media freedom has come countries are spared, of the 33 countries an increase in the number and severity of the MFRR covers (including EU Member Media Freedom Rapid Response ( MFRR ) tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media States, including the United Kingdom, and freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. This project provides legal and practical support, threats facing journalists, outlets and media public advocacy and information to protect journalists and media workers. The MFRR is organised by an workers across EU Member States and Can- Candidate Countries), two-thirds have had consortium led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) with ARTICLE 19, the Euro- at least one violation of media freedom up- pean Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Institute for Applied Informatics at didate Countries. the University of Leipzig (InfAI), International Press Institute (IPI) and CCI/Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso loaded to Mapping Media Freedom from Transeuropa (OBCT). The project is co-funded by the European Commission. ‌‌ www.mfrr.eu The Media Freedom Rapid Response is a within their borders since the beginning of mechanism that tracks, monitors and re- March 2020. sponds to violations of press and media free- 2 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report 3 Mapping Media Freedom is a crowd-sourc- This report compiled by MFRR partners, EFJ Note: (CC) refers to Candidate Countries ing platform that enables anyone to upload and IPI, with support from the ECPMF, anal- details of an attack, threat or media freedom yses and presents a micro- and macro- lev- Note: Due to the Transition Period outlined violation in real time to help us visualise and el diagnosis of the health of the European in the withdrawal agreement, for the MFRR, collect information about media freedom media landscape over a four-month period the United Kingdom will be treated as an EU across Europe. The European Federation of from March until the end of June 2020, ex- Member State until 31 December 2020 Journalists (EFJ) and the International Press ploring country-specific threats to media This allocation will help determine the focus Institute (IPI), with support from the Euro- freedom, as well as a region-wide com- of the country-by-country analysis outlined pean Centre for Press and Media Freedom parative analysis of key trends and themes in this report. However, due to the geo- (ECPMF) form the expert network who veri- that require robust and concerted action graphic spread of threats, as well as clusters fies, analyses and publishes all alerts on the to stem. In terms of monitoring, to manage of threats around specific countries or re- platform. These alerts form the basis of this workload and benefit from their expertise gions, the country-by-country analysis will report, giving a rich qualitative and quantita- and network reach, the 33 countries cov- highlight a selection of the above countries tive data source upon which we can identify ered by the MFRR are split between IPI and based on a number of factors including: and analyse systemic threats to media free- EFJ in the following way: frequency and severity of threats, threats dom and trends that need to be addressed, indicative of a broader trend (further ana- as well as guiding the MFRR’s legal, practical lysed in a later chapter); specific and egre- and advocacy support for journalists and gious cases that require analysis, as well media workers across the region. as ensuring, where possible, geographic spread across the MFRR region. For a de- tailed breakdown of every country in the MFRR region, please visit www.mappingme- diafreedom.org. IPI will monitor EFJ will monitor This report is structured in four sections. Austria Latvia First we will present a visual representation Italy Lithuania of different datasets from Mapping Media Bulgaria Estonia Freedom to present an overall picture of the Croatia Belgium platform and the broad health of the media Cyprus Luxembourg environment in EU Member States and Can- Malta the Netherlands didate Countries. Following this is a coun- Czech Republic Denmark try-by-country analysis divided between IPI Poland Finland and EFJ, which includes specific analysis Portugal France of a selection of countries within the MFRR Slovakia Germany region. Following this is a Cross Region- Romania Sweden al Thematic Comparative Analysis, which Slovenia United Kingdom interrogates trends that affect media and Greece Ireland press freedom across the entire MFRR re- Spain North Macedonia (CC) gion, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Hungary Montenegro (CC) public protests. This is then followed by a Albania (CC) Serbia (CC) conclusion that brings all analysis together. Turkey (CC) 4 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report 5 MAPPING MEDIA FREEDOM A Four-Month Snapshot 3 Mapping Media Freedom (MMF) visual- ises and collates threats to and violations of media and press freedom, while guid- ing the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) to provide advocacy, legal and practical support to at-risk journalists and media workers. This report covers all alerts posted to MMF from 1st March to 30th June 2020 from EU Member States and Candidate Countries. Alerts from 22 countries (two-thirds of the countries within the MFRR region) have been up- loaded to MMF, with Turkey (16), Ger- many (14) and Italy and the UK (both 11 alerts) demonstrating the highest number 11 of threats. These cover a wide range of 4 threats, from physical attacks, legal ac- tions or
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