Media Freedom: Few Good Stories to Tell
From the trend report on press freedom for Reporting Democracy Governments across Central and South-Eastern Europe have stepped up their efforts during the pandemic to exert more control over the independent media, using a variety of means, in a bid to control the narrative. Nimble, tech-savvy, often crowdfunded media start-ups are filling the void.
The Mapping Media Freedom project of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) identifies limitations, threats and violations faced by media workers in 43 countries. The latest monitoring report, covering the period between July and October 2020, recorded 111 alerts across Europe, of which 53 occurred in the region of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The majority of the alerts concerned psychological or physical threats; less frequent, but still widespread, were threats of legal action and censorship. The politicisation of the public and independent media in Central and South-Eastern Europe is a longterm trend that has picked up over the last couple of years. According to Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, Hungary has experienced a dramatic drop of 16 places in the index since 2018, Serbia a fall of 17 places and the Czech Republic six places. Bulgaria languishes in 111th place on the index, by far the worst score in the EU and second only to Belarus in Europe.
“To prosper, democracy needs a certain kind of public sphere, one in which citizens and their representatives engage in vigorous argument on the basis of shared facts. Restoring that kind of public sphere is now a central task for the renewal of liberal democracy.”
The pandemic has provided an opportunity for the nationalist-populist governments in the region to exert more control over the media. Hungary, generally accepted to be the EU’s most egregious media Timothy Garton Ash, historian, freedom abuser, has a modus operandi that involves The Guardian, 8 February 2021 the concentration of media in the hands of allies of the government. “The plurality of the media market is at high risk in Hungary. Independent media outlets face systemic obstruction and intimidation,” the European Commission wrote in its inaugural Rule of Law Report published in October 2020. Oligarchs and politicians often cooperate to control the narrative and critical voices. This is especially true for powerful ruling parties, which attempt to translate their strong position in politics into more favourable coverage and control over the media. Politicians and oligarchs increasingly use so-called SLAPP suits to legally challenge critical reporting, resulting in costly and prolonged court hearings. This ultimately encourages self-censorship by journalists as a way to stay out of trouble. The takeover of independent media by government allies and state companies will also have a chilling effect on critical coverage. There are growing calls by independent media watchdogs for the EU and international groups/governments to step in. The latest came from a group of 17 organisations that wrote an open letter to MEPs, ahead of a 10 March 2021 debate in the European Parliament on media freedom in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, calling for the European Commission to act. 66
