Press Freedom in Europe

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TEHRAN (FNA)- Europe is “no longer a sanctuary for journalists”,says Reporters Without Borders.

The organization points to the murders of three journalists in Malta, Slovakia and Bulgaria in the space of a few months and warning that “hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear”.

Most recent surveys and reports suggest that media freedom is on the decline generally in Western Europe too. Fear has been causing the most problems for journalists as well. In Europe specifically a number of countries have fallen down the Index. This is for a number of reasons and comes with rising populism, anti-media rhetoric from politicians, cyber-harassment of journalists, physical attacks.

Threats to journalists have emerged in recent years in Western Europe. For instance, in France or in Spain, during the Catalan independence protests, leaders of the movement delivered rhetoric which undermined trust in journalists. They did not think journalists were covering the situation properly, or at least not in the way they wanted, and they viewed journalists who were not supporting their cause as people who were working against it and trying to prevent independence.

Another example is Italy where there are 20 journalists who have around the clock police protection because they are facing threats from criminal networks. Journalists in Europe are facing cyber-harassment too - journalists covering protests in Spain and in France have been attacked online.

There is also a trend in Western Europe of journalists being attacked when covering protests themselves. This is because part of the population no longer trusts the media anymore – protest leaders have portrayed them negatively, as untrustworthy, because they are not happy with the coverage. Journalists sometimes face violence and terrible threats from protestors. And sometimes, when they cover demonstrations, journalists are sometimes targeted by both the protestors and the police, which makes their mission even harder. 

Likewise, growing and new threats are emerging. One of these is growing legal harassment of journalists. 

Governments and businessmen are chasing journalists legally, through lawyers and courts, trying to stop them reporting and doing their jobs. This is extremely worrying. There is also physical intimidation of journalists and cyber-harassment too, while in some countries the independence of public media is under threat as well with governments trying to interfere in editorial independence, to influence them.

Western Europe is certainly not free of this. Journalists in Western European states do face physical intimidation. Places like France, Spain, Italy, and fascist groups in Greece. And it was only a few months ago that a journalist, Lyra McKee, was killed in Northern Ireland. Western Europe is not without this problem, even today.

While the West is seen as having traditionally good, strong democracies to protect journalists, the situation with press freedom is not as good as it has been. Populist movements have spread across Europe, including Western Europe.

An erosion of press freedom in both Western and Eastern Europe is now a fact of life.