The State of Press Freedom in CEE
Reporters Without Borders recently released its World Press Freedom Index 2022 which analyzes the state of media freedom in countries around the world. Yako Molhov asked Pavol Szalai, Head of European Union & Balkans Desk, and Jeanne Cavelier, Head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, about the latest developments on the media markets in Central and Eastern Europe in particular. The experts have seen both positive and negative signs as the media environment varies largely from country to country.
Pavol Szalai, Head of European Union & Balkans Desk
Pavol, what are the main threats for media freedom in CEE and what are the necessary steps to be taken in order to improve media freedom?
Journalists in Central European and Balkan countries have been threatened by organized crime, legislative and regulatory measures suppressing press freedom and by the hate of certain groups of society. Although last year a Greek and a Dutch reporter were assassinated, in 2017 and 2018 Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak in Slovakia paid with their lives for investigating organised crime with links to political corruption. The masterminds of their assassinations are still not convicted for the crime.
Hungary continues to be an anti-model of press freedom in the EU inspiring other countries like Poland. Because of his political and economic maneuvers to silence or take over independent media (Tilos Radio is the latest example), Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains the only EU leader in our gallery of Press Freedom Predators. During the COVID-19 crisis, numerous European reporters covering protests against anti-coronavirus measures were attacked by hateful protesters who assimilated them with authorities, in countries ranging from the Baltics to Central Europe to Western Europe. One country which concentrates all press freedom issues existing elsewhere in Europe is Greece, now ranked 108th, the last in the EU in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.
RSF has promoted its recommendations based on its international expertise and best practice to national and European institutions in order to improve press freedom and security of journalists in Europe. We have recently made recommendations for stronger media independence, efficient access of journalists to information and their better protection in Hungary and Serbia. We also advocated for such measures and against the impunity of crimes committed against journalists at meetings with prime ministers of Bulgaria, Malta and Slovakia. On the EU level, the adoption by the European Commission of the Recommendation on the safety of journalists, draft legislation against abusive lawsuits and the adoption by the EU institutions of Digital Services Directive are positive steps inspired in part by RSF’s recommendations to protect journalists and promote trustworthy information. But the national authorities and the EU must live up to their promises of better protection of journalists and press freedom. On the European level, RSF expects especially an ambitious and legally binding European Media Freedom Act.
How are countries in Central and Eastern Europe faring? Which countries are on top of the list and which - on the bottom in the region and why?
The whole EU/Balkans zone is caught between two extremes and this applies also to Central and Eastern Europe in the EU and its neighborhood. On one end, there are Estonia and Lithuania which have entered the Top 10 countries of RSF’s World Press Freedom Index 2022 - in part thanks to few attacks against journalists and a certain political will to improve press freedom. On the other end, there are Bulgaria (91st), Albania (103rd) and Greece (108th) which are ranked as the 3 last countries of the Index in the EU/Balkans zone.
However, thanks in part to a political change, Bulgaria, but also the Czech Republic (20th) improved their ranking by 21 and 20 places respectively, although comparing the 2022 Index with previous editions has to be done with precaution due to changed methodology.
Has the ban on Russian state-controlled media in the EU improved the situation with media freedom?
It is totally legitimate to fight against disinformation, especially against war disinformation, and RT and Sputnik are clearly propaganda media created with the objective to spread it. However, the ban of RT and Sputnik was adopted by the EU hastily and without a proper legal framework. Just before Russia attacked Ukraine, RSF had proposed a mechanism protecting the European information space based on two principles - equal treatment and reciprocity - which should incite despotic regimes like the Russian and Chinese ones to open up. The first principle refers to the application of the same criteria for broadcasting for national and international media on EU’s territory. The second principle implies that broadcasters in non-EU could be subject to specific measures if the public space in these countries is closed and the level of respect for freedom of opinion and expression and press freedom is not satisfactory, and if they intentionally produce or distribute manipulative or false information. RSF advocates the inclusion of the protection mechanism in the upcoming European Media Freedom Act. At the same time, we are still examining the restrictions taken by national institutions against certain national or Russia-based outlets accused of spreading Kremlin’s propaganda.
What are the major changes compared to the 2021 index?
There was an important methodological evolution. The index now offers a range of 5 contextual indicators, with a score, a ranking and a map of the situation for each, on top of the global ranking, score and map.
Which are the countries that saw improvement in terms of media freedom and which countries dropped the most in the ranking?
In light of the methodological evolution, care should be taken when comparing the 2022 rankings and scores with those from 2021. Nevertheless, you can notice some cases of huge drops like for Hong Kong (-68), Nicaragua (-39), Greece (-38), Palestine (-38), Myanmar (-36) and Afghanistan (-34).
For the 20th anniversary of the first Index and a decade after the last significant change in methodology, a decision was taken to strengthen the bases of the Index, while building on the work of the past two decades.
It enables us to make a more complete analysis: we used to have seven conceptual indicators; now, we have five contextual indicators (political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and security).
We have improved and updated our questionnaire on press freedom situation, structuring it around the five new indicators.
This evolution was made with the help of a panel of 8 experts over the past two year.
Jeanne, how has the war in Ukraine affected ranking in the Index? Has the situation in Russia and Belarus worsened after the start of the war?
Data-gathering for this year’s Index stopped at the end of January 2022 as usual, but updates for January to March 2022 were carried out for countries where the situation had changed dramatically, including Russia and Ukraine. Russia (155th) is on the Index’s red list (indicating “very bad” press freedom situations) on the map, it has the worst press freedom situation in Central and Eastern Europe, just ahead of Belarus. The country was ranked 150th last year.
How do you estimate the situation in Ukraine?
Ukraine is now ranked 106th compared to 97th in 2021, due to the war waged by Russia against its territory. We closely monitor the situation on the ground. I remind you that 8 reporters were killed and 16 injured in the field already and, in the occupied territories, the Russian forces are hunting local journalists to force them to distribute propaganda - or to silence them. We registered more than 50 attacks against journalists and media that qualify as war crimes.
The war has also been a turning point for journalists working for independent media outlets in Russia: hundreds of them have been forced to flee the country due to the extensive wartime censorship, the blocking of the media, and the possible charges against non-compliant journalists which could lead them to up to 15 years in prison (new laws punishing discrediting the armed forces or so-called false information about Russian state bodies abroad, without any clear definition. The government has taken complete control of news and information. Almost every day, we observe arrests and harassment against those who decided to stay to continue their work. So, the acceleration of the repression against journalists since the end of 2020 led to a total crackdown on the press at the beginning of the war against Ukraine.
More generally, this invasion is creating devastating consequences for press freedom in the region, since the Kremlin is imposing its vision of the war on some of its neighbours, especially in Belarus (153th), where independent journalists continue to be persecuted for their work since the controversial presidential election of August 2020, and where 30 media workers are languishing in prison (including the last one not in the PR linked above, Yauhen Erchak, arrested today).
Journalists in Central European and Balkan countries have been threatened by organized crime, legislative and regulatory measures suppressing press freedom and by the hate of certain groups of society. Although last year a Greek and a Dutch reporter were assassinated, in 2017 and 2018 Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak in Slovakia paid with their lives for investigating organised crime with links to political corruption. The masterminds of their assassinations are still not convicted for the crime.
Hungary continues to be an anti-model of press freedom in the EU inspiring other countries like Poland. Because of his political and economic maneuvers to silence or take over independent media (Tilos Radio is the latest example), Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains the only EU leader in our gallery of Press Freedom Predators. During the COVID-19 crisis, numerous European reporters covering protests against anti-coronavirus measures were attacked by hateful protesters who assimilated them with authorities, in countries ranging from the Baltics to Central Europe to Western Europe. One country which concentrates all press freedom issues existing elsewhere in Europe is Greece, now ranked 108th, the last in the EU in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.
RSF has promoted its recommendations based on its international expertise and best practice to national and European institutions in order to improve press freedom and security of journalists in Europe. We have recently made recommendations for stronger media independence, efficient access of journalists to information and their better protection in Hungary and Serbia. We also advocated for such measures and against the impunity of crimes committed against journalists at meetings with prime ministers of Bulgaria, Malta and Slovakia. On the EU level, the adoption by the European Commission of the Recommendation on the safety of journalists, draft legislation against abusive lawsuits and the adoption by the EU institutions of Digital Services Directive are positive steps inspired in part by RSF’s recommendations to protect journalists and promote trustworthy information. But the national authorities and the EU must live up to their promises of better protection of journalists and press freedom. On the European level, RSF expects especially an ambitious and legally binding European Media Freedom Act.
How are countries in Central and Eastern Europe faring? Which countries are on top of the list and which - on the bottom in the region and why?
The whole EU/Balkans zone is caught between two extremes and this applies also to Central and Eastern Europe in the EU and its neighborhood. On one end, there are Estonia and Lithuania which have entered the Top 10 countries of RSF’s World Press Freedom Index 2022 - in part thanks to few attacks against journalists and a certain political will to improve press freedom. On the other end, there are Bulgaria (91st), Albania (103rd) and Greece (108th) which are ranked as the 3 last countries of the Index in the EU/Balkans zone.
However, thanks in part to a political change, Bulgaria, but also the Czech Republic (20th) improved their ranking by 21 and 20 places respectively, although comparing the 2022 Index with previous editions has to be done with precaution due to changed methodology.
Has the ban on Russian state-controlled media in the EU improved the situation with media freedom?
It is totally legitimate to fight against disinformation, especially against war disinformation, and RT and Sputnik are clearly propaganda media created with the objective to spread it. However, the ban of RT and Sputnik was adopted by the EU hastily and without a proper legal framework. Just before Russia attacked Ukraine, RSF had proposed a mechanism protecting the European information space based on two principles - equal treatment and reciprocity - which should incite despotic regimes like the Russian and Chinese ones to open up. The first principle refers to the application of the same criteria for broadcasting for national and international media on EU’s territory. The second principle implies that broadcasters in non-EU could be subject to specific measures if the public space in these countries is closed and the level of respect for freedom of opinion and expression and press freedom is not satisfactory, and if they intentionally produce or distribute manipulative or false information. RSF advocates the inclusion of the protection mechanism in the upcoming European Media Freedom Act. At the same time, we are still examining the restrictions taken by national institutions against certain national or Russia-based outlets accused of spreading Kremlin’s propaganda.
What are the major changes compared to the 2021 index?
There was an important methodological evolution. The index now offers a range of 5 contextual indicators, with a score, a ranking and a map of the situation for each, on top of the global ranking, score and map.
Which are the countries that saw improvement in terms of media freedom and which countries dropped the most in the ranking?
In light of the methodological evolution, care should be taken when comparing the 2022 rankings and scores with those from 2021. Nevertheless, you can notice some cases of huge drops like for Hong Kong (-68), Nicaragua (-39), Greece (-38), Palestine (-38), Myanmar (-36) and Afghanistan (-34).
For the 20th anniversary of the first Index and a decade after the last significant change in methodology, a decision was taken to strengthen the bases of the Index, while building on the work of the past two decades.
It enables us to make a more complete analysis: we used to have seven conceptual indicators; now, we have five contextual indicators (political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and security).
We have improved and updated our questionnaire on press freedom situation, structuring it around the five new indicators.
This evolution was made with the help of a panel of 8 experts over the past two year.
Jeanne Cavelier, Head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Jeanne, how has the war in Ukraine affected ranking in the Index? Has the situation in Russia and Belarus worsened after the start of the war?
Data-gathering for this year’s Index stopped at the end of January 2022 as usual, but updates for January to March 2022 were carried out for countries where the situation had changed dramatically, including Russia and Ukraine. Russia (155th) is on the Index’s red list (indicating “very bad” press freedom situations) on the map, it has the worst press freedom situation in Central and Eastern Europe, just ahead of Belarus. The country was ranked 150th last year.
How do you estimate the situation in Ukraine?
Ukraine is now ranked 106th compared to 97th in 2021, due to the war waged by Russia against its territory. We closely monitor the situation on the ground. I remind you that 8 reporters were killed and 16 injured in the field already and, in the occupied territories, the Russian forces are hunting local journalists to force them to distribute propaganda - or to silence them. We registered more than 50 attacks against journalists and media that qualify as war crimes.
The war has also been a turning point for journalists working for independent media outlets in Russia: hundreds of them have been forced to flee the country due to the extensive wartime censorship, the blocking of the media, and the possible charges against non-compliant journalists which could lead them to up to 15 years in prison (new laws punishing discrediting the armed forces or so-called false information about Russian state bodies abroad, without any clear definition. The government has taken complete control of news and information. Almost every day, we observe arrests and harassment against those who decided to stay to continue their work. So, the acceleration of the repression against journalists since the end of 2020 led to a total crackdown on the press at the beginning of the war against Ukraine.
More generally, this invasion is creating devastating consequences for press freedom in the region, since the Kremlin is imposing its vision of the war on some of its neighbours, especially in Belarus (153th), where independent journalists continue to be persecuted for their work since the controversial presidential election of August 2020, and where 30 media workers are languishing in prison (including the last one not in the PR linked above, Yauhen Erchak, arrested today).
