Press freedom in EU is stifling with threats to journalists' lives: Report

By Semir Sejfovic

SARAJEVO (AA) – The lives of journalists are in danger in the European Union, especially because of pandemic-related media restrictions, spyware, and the conflict in Ukraine, a group protecting journalists' rights said in its latest report.

Even though the EU was once regarded as one of the safest and freest places for journalists, recent attacks on the press have forced the bloc's institutions to reconsider their media freedom policies, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its special report "Fragile Progress: The Struggle for Press Freedom in the European Union" published on Tuesday.

“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,” it stressed.

The report revealed that journalists in EU countries were censored, spied on, harassed online, bombarded with disinformation, subjected to abusive lawsuits, charged with revealing state secrets, and even beaten while covering street protests, banned from public meetings, or lambasted by politicians.

According to the report, some member states used the COVID-19 pandemic to exert control over the media, including restricting access to journalists and withholding public-interest information.

Furthermore, the report claimed that draft and active digital legislation violates journalists' privacy and encryption rights.

“The EU institutions themselves are far from fully transparent; the European Commission’s handling of access to information requests can result in either restricted information or delayed responses,” it said.

In view of this, the CPJ urged the union to fix any problematic legislation, policy, or practice that restricts the work of journalists or threatens press freedom, as well as to ensure that the next European Commission, which will be formed in 2024, has a strong press freedom mandate and vision.