Physical attacks on journalists, intimidation, legal threats, attempts to capture the media and transnational repression: press freedom was severely tested in 2025, note the partner organisations of the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists in their Annual Report.
Entitled ‘On the Tipping Point: Press Freedom 2025’, this text reports 344 alerts relating to serious threats to media freedom, representing an increase of 29% compared to 2024.
Russia’s war against Ukraine was once again the greatest source of danger for journalists, with four deaths, numerous injuries, disappearances and detentions in the territories occupied by Russia.
The highest levels of physical violence against journalists were recorded in Georgia, Serbia and Türkiye, while the use of detention as a tool to control the media is particularly worrying in Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, the occupied Ukrainian territories, Türkiye, Armenia and Georgia.
Other causes for concern include political interference in the public service media, restrictive laws, inadequate funding and SLAPP lawsuits, for which the partners welcome the adoption of an EU directive and a Council of Europe recommendation, which have already been partially implemented in some countries.
The report also expresses concern about the risk of surveillance of journalists using spyware, transnational repression of journalists, ‘foreign agent’ laws adopted or planned in several countries, and precarious working conditions for media workers in many others.
The Platform partners urge the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the 46 member states of the Council of Europe to uphold press freedom standards, and call on the Strasbourg-based organisation to place media pluralism and the journalist safety at the core of its ‘New Democratic Pact for Europe’.
They deplore the fact that in 2025, less than a third of alerts received a response from States, and call for them to work more closely with the Platform.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/l03 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)