Brussels Must Do More on EU Media Freedoms, Report Says

2023-04-26

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WASHINGTON —Although the European Union has boosted its press freedom record over the past few years, the organization still has room for improvement, according to a new report on the Brussels-based group.

"Much progress has been made, but combating entrenched pressure on and threats to journalists in Europe - and setting an effective example for governments around the world - still requires improved and sustained action from Brussels," the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said in a report released Tuesday.

The most pressing issues facing journalists in Europe include killings, as well as pandemic-related media controls, disinformation, spyware and the ongoing war in Ukraine, said the report, titled, "Fragile Progress."

Since 2015, multiple journalists have been killed in EU countries. At least two of them - Malta's Daphne Caruana Galizia and Slovakia's Jan Kuciak - were murdered because of their work.

Meanwhile, Swedish reporter Kim Wall was killed on assignment, and the motives for the killings of Bulgarian reporter Viktoria Marinova, Dutch reporter Peter R. de Vries, and Greek reporter Giorgos Karaivaz, remain undetermined.

Threats include lawsuits, beatings

The EU has not commented on the latest CPJ report. In 2021, the European Commission said killings were "the most tragic" kind of threat facing reporters in Europe. But far more common than killings are other issues such as online harassment, disinformation, retaliatory lawsuits, and beatings at protests.

The war in Ukraine has posed an unprecedented test of Europe's commitment to protecting journalists, the report said. Several member states have provided refuge or support to Russian and Ukrainian journalists affected by the war.

Still, the war on the battlefield has been accompanied by the information war playing out online, forcing reporters to face a wave of disinformation and harassment.

Brussels has recognized that disinformation poses an increasingly concerning threat toward democracy and has taken steps to combat the issue and build trust in journalism, the CPJ said.

But another problem is that some countries, such as Hungary, have used the fight against disinformation as a pretext to launch anti-fake news policies that are actually designed to curb independent media.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban's policies, such as those addressing fake news, underscore how the EU is a mixed bag when it comes to press freedom. In a 2022 report, the European Commission urged 16 of the EU's 27 members to take steps to better protect journalists.

Harassed for pandemic coverage

At its worst, the COVID-19 pandemic presented newfound issues as well, with journalists in countries such as Italy facing violent harassment in retaliation for their coverage of the outbreak and anti-vaccine movements, as well as restrictions imposed in the name of public health.

Although Brussels has taken some concrete steps to improve media freedoms, the EU appears to prefer supporting press freedom in theory, rather than in practice, the report said.

The report pointed to some contradictions in the EU's approach to press freedom. The EU has taken steps to address threats posed by surveillance of journalists, but at the same time, the report says the bloc has threatened the end-to-end encryption policies put into place by secure messaging platforms such as Signal and WhatsApp. Many journalists use those platforms to safely communicate with sources.

Meanwhile, even as Brussels funds investigative reporters, it regularly blocks access to official documents, the report said.

"The scope and effectiveness of EU actions in support of press freedom often 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," the report said.

If Brussels doesn't improve its press freedom record at home, then what's at stake, the CPJ said, is the EU's capacity to advocate for press freedom in third countries without coming across as hypocritical.

"To be effective and credible, the EU must apply the same criteria to all actors, within the EU and internationally, and actively fight against the pitfall of double standards," the report said.