Brussels, 04/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - While 2005 saw more reporters killed than for ten years, the European Union comes across as a good pupil, although there is room for improvement, in the annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). On 3 May, the sixteenth World Press Freedom Day, RSF said that, within the EU, and principally in France, Belgium and Poland, there had been a high number of searches and journalists being called to reveal to police the names of their sources. While European Court of Human Rights case-law considers the protection of journalistic sources to be one of the cornerstones of the freedom of the press, several Member States had increased attacks on this principle essential to guarantee independent investigative journalism, said RSF. In France, nine journalists were beaten up and harm has been done to pluralism of information in Italy. RSF reported, however, that the new States which joined the European Union in 2004 had made spectacular progress in terms of freedom of the press. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia, it said, were veritable havens of peace for the freedom of the press, just like the northern European countries. The only let-down was Poland where, over the last few months, the ultra-conservative media have received favours from parties close to power. With regard to the Balkans, RSF said there were still serious threats to the freedom of the press. It felt legislation in Romania and Bulgaria, countries soon to join the European Union, was still far from European standards. The same was true of Croatia. Finally, ahead of its accession to the EU, Turkey had adopted considerable legislative reform, which, paradoxically, had in some cases added new restrictions for journalists. For example, on 1st June 2005 a new penal code came into effect and the vague wording of some articles opened the way for excessive legal action and very free interpretation on the part of judges, said RSF. The situation on freedom of the press had generally worsened in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Apart from Ukraine, RSF noted a deterioration in journalists' working conditions, notably in Uzbekistan, Belarus, Russia and Azerbaijan.