Council of Europe, Safety of Journalists Report

This week saw the publication of the 2021 report from the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists.

This annual report draws on alerts made on the platform to highlight key areas of law, policy and practice where partners consider that actions are urgently required.

These partners include many of the most important media freedom organisations: RSF, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Article 19, PEN International and the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom, just to name a few.

The report provides some of the most comprehensive analysis of media freedom violations in Europe.

With the rise of Covid-19 and widespread use of draconian lockdown legislation to harass and undermine journalists, 2020 was already shaping up to be a bad year for journalists.

Even so, the report’s summary of abuses in the Balkan region makes for particularly grim reading.

Balkan countries were represented on almost every issue brought to the attention of the Council of Europe, while Serbia and Bulgaria were the most consistent individual offenders from the region.

Both Bulgaria and Serbia were highlighted as countries where state-led media capture had been used a method to undermine independent journalism and media pluralism.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia were among the countries that experienced the most reported threats against journalists, which were directed at the “life, health or physical integrity of the victim.”

Serbia was again highlighted as a main offender when it came to attacks on journalists in connection with the coverage of public events.

North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia were included as countries where smears, insults and denigration were an issue.

Responses to FOI requests were deliberately slowed in Serbia and Bulgaria.

Serbia was again called out for concerns of surveillance of journalists after the Finance Ministry demanded access to bank records of journalists and NGOs

The report provides a detailed description of the shocking treatment of Nova.rs journalist Ana Lalić by the Serbian authorities. It describes how she was detained for “causing panic and disorder” through an article on the lack of personal protective equipment and poor working conditions at a local hospital. This took place, the report points out, “on the first day of the application of a new regulation penalising anyone releasing information about the coronavirus outbreak that was not ‘authorised’ by the Prime Minister’s Office or the Crisis Management Taskforce.” Only after international condemnation was Lalić released and the decree reversed. 

Similar emergency initiatives were attempted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria but were also reversed. The Bulgarian iteration went so far as to try to introduce prison sentences for spreading what it deemed “fake news” about Covid-19.

The report paints a picture of the Balkans as a place where media freedoms and journalists are under threat from all angles. Open harassment and violence are complemented by more insidious, but just as influential, manipulations of media ownership and tools needed for freedom of information.

If there is one lesson to take from this year’s damning report, it is that our response to the current media landscape must be as wide-ranging and thorough as the attacks being made.