Fragile Progress: The struggle for press freedom in the European Union
By Jean-Paul Marthoz and Tom Gibson The European Union is facing numerous challenges as it seeks new ways to uphold its commitment to press freedom. 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…
Fragile Progress: Part 1
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the EU Introduction European Union countries have traditionally been considered among the safest and freest places for journalists in the world. Yet, as the European Commission noted in November 2021, “the number of threats and attacks against them [journalists] have been on the rise in…
Fragile Progress: Part 2
Upholding the law Other governments, like those headed by Slovenia’s “pro-Trump populist”80 Prime Minister Janez Janša from 2020-2022 and Greece’s conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also adopted illiberal practices, from media capture to public denigration of critical journalists.81 Yet the European Union can only act in those areas where its member states have authorized it…
Fragile Progress: Part 3
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the EU Spyware and the EU In July 2021 the Pegasus Project, an investigation led by Forbidden Stories with the assistance of Amnesty International’s Security Lab,112 revealed how some EU countries, in spite of being officially committed to protect journalists’ freedom, had used surveillance…
Fragile Progress: Part 4
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the EU EU access and transparency The press corps remains a major actor in Brussels in spite of a decline in the number of accredited correspondents as many legacy media downsized staff or began covering the EU from outside of Brussels. The European Commission’s…
Fragile Progress: Part 5
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the EU Fighting impunity CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index found that no one has been held to account for nearly 80% of 263 journalist murders over the past 10 years worldwide. Could the EU play a more active role in the fight against impunity,…
Fragile Progress: CPJ’s recommendations to the EU
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the European Union The Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2023 report, Fragile Progress, highlights the EU’s responses to the complex and severe challenges currently facing journalists. As a critical juncture for continuing the defense of democracy approaches with the 2024 elections, CPJ believes that the…
Fragile Progress: Source notes
A CPJ special report on the struggle for press freedom in the EU 1 Pol Morillas, editor, “Illiberal Democracies in the EU: the Visegrad Group and the Risk of Disintegration,” January 2017 2 CPJ, “Balancing Act,” 2015 https://cpj.org/reports/2015/09/press-freedom-at-risk-europe-summary/ 3 Some sources asked not to be named in this report in order to speak frankly or because they…
CPJ calls on British PM to press for Jimmy Lai’s freedom after Hong Kong report
New York, April 24, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed recommendations made by Britain’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in a report about Hong Kong media freedom released Monday, April 24, and joined the group in urging the U.K. government to immediately take action to secure the release of Jimmy Lai and other imprisoned journalists. The…
CPJ’s 2023 International Press Freedom Awards
CPJ’s annual International Press Freedom Awards honored courageous journalists from around the world on Thursday, November 16, 2023, in New York City. This year’s dinner was chaired by Meredith Kopit Levien, President and CEO of The New York Times Company. Watch the full video here. Press Release | Video | Media Accreditation | Tables and…