![]() Trade secrets pose a routine obstacle to legitimate public interest reporting. Draft and active digital legislation threatens journalists’ right to privacy and encryption. The report noted that the capacity of the EU was limited to how much power member states were ready to concede to Brussels. In 2015, the Committee to Protect Journalists published “ Balancing Act,” 2 a special report noting the delicate diplomatic and political way in which the EU was forced to operate given the constraints of a weak legal arsenal and limited ability to change recalcitrant behavior in member states. Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has tested the EU’s ability to protect journalist safety. Some governments used the COVID-19 pandemic to control the media, including restricting access to journalists and withholding public-interest information. Overall, the EU’s shift still needs to be translated into meaningful action within member states. Professional associations and press freedom groups have also strengthened networks and coalitions that increased their profiles and enhanced the importance of press freedom within the EU institutions, pushing for common EU policies to support journalists and guarantee their safety.Īt the same time, new challenges have arisen. EU legislation like the Journalist Safety Recommendation, the anti-SLAPP Directive, and the European Media Freedom Act spelled out a positive new direction for the EU. ![]() Renewed will and a strengthened mandate from the European Commission after 2019 saw Brussels pledge to tackle issues from journalist safety, the economic undermining of independent journalism through media capture, and the vexatious lawsuits known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). Brussels, the shorthand reference for major EU institutions like the European Commission, the Council, the European Parliament, and the Court of Justice, has increasingly recognized that while journalists played a key role in defending EU interests and values, the EU was not doing enough to protect them – and that this needed to change. Much has changed in the media landscape since EU citizens last went to the polls. The EU’s next parliamentary election will take place in 2024. Other journalists had been censored, spied upon, harassed online, overwhelmed with disinformation, subjected to abusive lawsuits, charged with revealing state secrets, beaten while covering street protests, banned from public meetings, or lambasted by politicians. Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak had been murdered in connection with their work. ![]() The last election for the European Parliament took place in 2019 against a backdrop of rising populism and concern about illiberal 1 governments like Hungary and Poland trampling on the rule of law, including press freedom. Often, the scope and effectiveness of EU actions in support of press freedom reflect the gap between the values-based narrative that the EU tells about itself and the reality of how it and its member states pursue their interests. The European Union traditionally has been considered among the world’s safest and freest places for journalists. However, increasing pressure on press freedom in Europe has forced EU institutions to find ways to push their 27 member states to uphold their commitments to freedom of expression and the rule of law. The report also includes CPJ’s recommendations to EU institutions and member states on protecting independent media and journalist safety. This special report – a follow-up to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2015 report “Balancing Act: Press freedom at risk as EU struggles to match action with values” – examines the EU’s response to threats such as murders of journalists, pandemic-related media controls, spyware, and the war in Ukraine. The European Union is facing numerous challenges as it seeks new ways to uphold its commitment to press freedom.
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