Latest news with #CivilLibertiesUnionforEurope
Russia Today
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Media freedom deteriorating in EU
Media freedom is deteriorating in a number of EU countries, according to a recent report by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties). The group has claimed that pluralism and freedom of speech are 'under attack' as media companies become increasingly controlled by governments and wealthy owners. In the Media Freedom 2025 report, the authors have outlined a range of pressures facing journalists and independent outlets, including legal and physical threats, declining ownership transparency, and political interference in public broadcasting. The group has warned that these factors have had a significant impact on the work of the media, limiting the diversity of opinions and the independence of publications, reducing public trust in content. Liberties has identified Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Croatia, France, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain as among the EU member states where the situation is most alarming. According to the report, public broadcasters in several of these countries are routinely manipulated by political interests, and legal protections for media workers remain weak or poorly enforced. The group also recorded at least 156 physical or verbal attacks on journalists in 2024, including cases of police intimidation and criminal defamation charges. In some states, the report notes, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are still being used to silence critical reporting, despite the EU's recent efforts to curb their abuse. Liberties also noted that Russian and Belarusian journalists working in the bloc have repeatedly faced threats and harassment and become targets of spyware, raising concerns over their safety and what effect it could be having on their work. Earlier this month, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the EU had denied its journalists accreditation for 2025, citing sanctions regulations. The outlet has appealed the decision, referencing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and earlier EU statements that had assured journalistic activity would not be restricted. The rejection follows a broader crackdown on Russian media in the EU since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The European Council has banned Russian outlets such as RT, Sputnik and RIA across the bloc. In its 16th sanctions package adopted this February, the bloc also added eight more Russian news outlets to the blacklist, including and the Zvezda TV channel. Russian officials have repeatedly condemned the bans, arguing EU officials are afraid of people seeing a viewpoint that differs from the Western mainstream narrative and drawing their own conclusions about current events.
Irish Examiner
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Press freedom and pluralism face ‘existential battle' across EU, report finds
Media pluralism in many EU member states is being increasingly strangled by a high concentration of ownership, even in countries with traditionally free media markets, according to a report that concludes press freedom is crumbling across the bloc. The report, produced by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) based on the work of 43 human rights groups from 21 countries, said several EU governments were attacking press freedom or weakening media independence and regulation. Along with weak ownership transparency rules, growing government influence over public media and threats against journalists, media freedom and pluralism were 'under attack across the EU, and in some cases in an existential battle', it said. 'This isn't a surprise,' said Jonathan Day, the report's lead editor. 'Governments' efforts to weaken the rule of law and democratic institutions almost always start by seeking to control their country's media landscape.' Day said the EU's attempt to safeguard media freedom, the European Media Freedom Act (Emfa), was 'already facing resistance even before it's fully in force. How successfully it is enforced may be make-or-break for media freedom in some member states.' Media ownership The report singled out an excessive concentration of media ownership as a particular concern in Croatia, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, with ownership often concentrated in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy individuals. This was exacerbated by inadequate transparency of media ownership, it said, with many member states failing to set up publicly accessible databases required by the Emfa, almost all of which is due to come fully into force in August. The binding legislation aims to guarantee the protection of journalists and sources, independence of regulatory bodies and full ownership transparency — but many member states 'seem unready if not unwilling to fully enforce' it, the report said. France faced 'significant media pluralism challenges', the report said, highlighting Vincent Bolloré's acquisition of the Hachette group and installation, at several of its publishing houses, of executives sympathetic to the conservative billionaire's views. In Italy, the report noted the planned acquisition of AGI, a leading news agency, by the Angelucci Group, headed by Antonio Angelucci, an MP from the far-right Lega party who already owns Italian newspapers including Il Giornale, Libero and Il Tempo. Bonnier owns 43% of all subscription-based multi-day newspapers in Sweden; while Schibsted owns 13 more including Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet. The Dutch online media market, meanwhile, is dominated by websites owned by DPG Media, Mediahuis and RTL Nederland — with the former announcing plans in late 2023 to acquire the latter, a move being investigated by the consumer and markets authority. Concerns over pluralism are also rising in Germany, where many local newspapers, hit by digitisation and declining readership, are closing offices. Nearly half of all German newspaper publishers have reduced their editorial staff and 62% expect further cuts. The report also found that journalists remain vulnerable to hate speech and attacks, suffering police violence in France, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Spain. Guardian Read More Electricity restored to 99% of Spain and most of Portugal after massive power outage
The Guardian
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Press freedom and pluralism face ‘existential battle' across EU, report finds
Media pluralism in many EU member states is being increasingly strangled by a high concentration of ownership, even in countries with traditionally free media markets, according to a report that concludes press freedom is crumbling across the bloc. The report, produced by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) based on the work of 43 human rights groups from 21 countries, said several EU governments were attacking press freedom or weakening media independence and regulation. Along with weak ownership transparency rules, growing government influence over public media and threats against journalists, media freedom and pluralism were 'under attack across the EU, and in some cases in an existential battle', it said. 'This isn't a surprise,' said Jonathan Day, the report's lead editor. 'Governments' efforts to weaken the rule of law and democratic institutions almost always start by seeking to control their country's media landscape.' Day said the EU's attempt to safeguard media freedom, the European Media Freedom Act (Emfa), was 'already facing resistance even before it's fully in force. How successfully it is enforced may be make-or-break for media freedom in some member states.'. The report singled out an excessive concentration of media ownership as a particular concern in Croatia, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, with ownership often concentrated in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy individuals. This was exacerbated by inadequate transparency of media ownership, it said, with many member states failing to set up publicly accessible databases required by the Emfa, almost all of which is due to come fully into force in August. The binding legislation aims to guarantee the protection of journalists and sources, independence of regulatory bodies and full ownership transparency – but many member states 'seem unready if not unwilling to fully enforce' it, the report said. France faced 'significant media pluralism challenges', the report said, highlighting Vincent Bolloré's acquisition of the Hachette group and installation, at several of its publishing houses, of executives sympathetic to the conservative billionaire's views. In Italy, the report noted the planned acquisition of AGI, a leading news agency, by the Angelucci Group, headed by Antonio Angelucci, an MP from the far-right Lega party who already owns Italian newspapers including Il Giornale, Libero and Il Tempo. Bonnier owns 43% of all subscription-based multi-day newspapers in Sweden; while Schibsted owns 13 more including Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet. In the Netherlands, RTL Nederland and Talpa Network own more than 75% of the TV market. The Dutch online media market, meanwhile, is dominated by websites owned by DPG Media, Mediahuis and RTL Nederland – with the former announcing plans in late 2023 to acquire the latter, a move being investigated by the consumer and markets authority. Concerns over pluralism are also rising in Germany, where many local newspapers, hit by digitisation and declining readership, are closing offices. Nearly half of all German newspaper publishers have reduced their editorial staff and 62% expect further cuts. Media ownership concentration – and state media interference – are at their peak in Hungary, where the Central European Press and Media Foundation (Kesma), run by loyalists of Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, owns several hundred media companies. Oligarchs close to Orbán began buying up major media outlets in 2010, then 'donated' them to Kesma, which since 2018 has functioned as 'a centralised, pro-government media conglomerate' relying on state advertisements for funding, the report said. Beyond Hungary, governments also exercise influence over national media through the opaque allocation of state advertising funds, or favouring government-friendly outlets, in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Malta, Slovenia and Spain, the report found. The report said public media was a 'fully captured government mouthpiece' in Hungary, and heading that way in Slovakia, where new laws have scrapped safeguards for editorial independence. Public media is also vulnerable in Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy, it said. The report also found that journalists remain vulnerable to hate speech and physical attacks, suffering police violence in 2024 in France, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Spain. In some countries, female journalists were disproportionately targeted. It said abusive Slapp (strategic litigation against public participation) lawsuits were a 'potentially existential threat' in at least a dozen EU countries, with the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, instigating one Slapp case against a journalist. Public officials had also hampered journalists' work by resisting or outright refusing freedom of information requests in several countries including Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain, the report said.
Local Italy
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
Three ways Italy's government is 'undermining the rule of law'
Italy was singled out as a "dismantler" of democracy in a report published by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), an international coalition of civil rights organisations. Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia were the other EU countries that "intentionally undermine the rule of law in nearly all aspects," the group said. Here are three of ways in which the coalition argues PM Giorgia Meloni's government is weakening the rule of law in Italy. Restricting civil liberties Freedom of peaceful assembly, a right enshrined in the Italian constitution, has been "dangerously compromised" by the Meloni government, the report said. A security bill approved by Italy's lower house of parliament in September proposes years-long prison sentences for activists who block traffic and criminalises passive resistance in prisons and detention centres. If passed, the draft law could have "a devastating impact on fundamental rights, including the rights to peaceful protest," warned Human Rights Watch. Infringing on press freedom Italy's state broadcaster RAI has faced "unprecedented levels of political interference" in the past couple of years, putting "unprecedented pressure" on its journalists, the Liberties report noted. The decision by RAI management last May to abruptly pull an anti-fascist monologue by novelist Antonio Scurati in which he accused Meloni's party of rewriting history sparked widespread outrage and allegations of government censorship. Meloni and members of her administration have also long faced accusations of trying to silence journalists and intimidate detractors through defamation suits (defamation is a criminal offence in Italy). In the latest Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Italy dropped to 46th place - five places lower than in 2023 and behind all other western European countries. Increased political control over the judiciary The Meloni administration said last month that it was pushing ahead with a sweeping reform that, if passed, would grant the justice ministry broad powers over prosecutors, potentially increasing government control over the judiciary. In Italy, judges and prosecutors share a career track and independent governing body that is fiercely resistant to political interference. Meloni argues that her proposed reform to cut the ties between the two professions - an effort championed unsuccessfully for many years by Silvio Berlusconi - will speed up trials and decrease alleged bias against defendants. "This will only be harmful. The separation of careers will turn the public prosecutor into a super-police officer, and they will lose the culture of impartiality," Nicola Gratteri, the chief prosecutor in Naples, told Reuters.
Euronews
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Rule of law deteriorates across the EU, report finds
While the situation varies from one member state to another, there is a broad and fundamental trend towards rule of law encountering severe challengers over the past few years, the Liberties Rule of Law report reveals. The 1,000-page report — published on Monday by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe advocacy group — is released annually, with its sixth iteration released this year being the result of collaboration between 43 human rights organisations from 21 EU countries. One of the most striking conclusions drawn from the organisation's research is the persistence of reported violations and the overarching deterioration of the rule of law across the EU. While individual countries exhibit variations, the broader observation is that all fundamental aspects of the rule of law – namely, the justice system, anti-corruption measures, media freedom, checks and balances, civic space and human rights – have encountered similar and deepening challenges over the past few years. This clearly highlights persistent and systemic deficiencies in the rule of law across the bloc. "We see a large number of countries where the rule of law continues to decline, most notably in Italy, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary," Viktor Z Kazai, senior rule of law expert at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe and one of the authors of the report, told Euronews. "The reason behind this is because the EU is not strong enough in its responses to rule of law decline. If rule of law violations are permitted, even tacitly, it encourages government leaders to further deteriorate the rule of law," Kazai added The "stagnators" are countries that remained static or made minimal progress in their rule of law indicators. Greece, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain belong to this group. The "sliders" are model democracies like Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden, demonstrating isolated but troubling declines in certain areas. The "dismantlers" are countries where the rule of law is systematically and intentionally undermined in almost all areas, with this group comprising of Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia. The weakest link, and repeat offender, was found to be Hungary. Some countries displayed marked attempts at improving the state of the rule of law domestically. The 'hard workers,' Estonia and the Czech Republic, showed signs of genuine and systemic efforts at making improvements, highlighting the successful role of civil society in creating positive change. Poland, meanwhile, is considered a "cautionary tale" as the new government has attempted to restore judicial independence and media pluralism without achieving major progress, illustrating that addressing the compromised independence of institutions is a highly challenging and fragile endeavour. According to the report, it is crucial that the European Commission links the annual rule of law report with rule of law enforcement mechanisms, such as Article 7 infringement proceedings for member states that fail to respect European values or EU conditionality. The justice system still suffers from political manipulation, insufficient resources and barriers to legal aid, all of which undermine its independence, quality and efficiency, according to the report. The big picture also shows that in the realm of fighting corruption, there is a persistent lack of transparency, weak law enforcement and inadequate protection of whistleblowers, leading to an erosion of trust in government integrity. Media freedom remains under threat in many countries, as political influence compromises the independence of regulatory bodies and concentrated ownership stifles pluralism, with journalists facing increasing harassment and legal challenges. Checks and balances are further weakened by the overuse of fast-track legislative processes, political interference in independent authorities and compromised integrity of the electoral system, all eroding democratic and legal control over the government. Furthermore, civic spaces have continued to shrink as widespread smear campaigns embolden governments to adopt restrictive laws, in particular when it comes to the right to peaceful protest and freedom of assembly and association. Finally, human rights are under increasing pressure due to stricter migration policies, inadequate protection for vulnerable groups, and rising discrimination and hate speech impacting minorities across the region. As the report's authors note, these internal challenges are unfolding against a shifting geopolitical landscape, with the rise of far-right populism and democratic backsliding in the US and global conflicts shaping Europe's political trajectory. The far-right's growing influence threatens EU unity, while Russia's war on Ukraine and declining transatlantic support for European security test the bloc's resilience. Migration policies are becoming more hardline, with states tightening borders and restricting asylum rights, often in violation of international law. Meanwhile, the EU's enforcement mechanisms remain weak, which has allowed illiberal trends to fester rather than send a clear message on the centrality of the rule of law and fundamental rights. Without decisive action, the EU risks further democratic erosion, internal fragmentation and weakened global standing. 'As far-right populism rises and democracy backslides in the US, Europe's rule of law crisis deepens. Growing far-right influence threatens EU unity, while Russia's war in Ukraine and rapidly transforming transatlantic ties test the bloc's resilience," the report stated. "To safeguard the EU and the rules-based world, the European Commission must strengthen rule of law enforcement - linking it directly to Article 7, budgetary conditionality and infringement proceedings.'
