"The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for newsrooms across the world range from severe economic hardship to increased threats to press freedom. The “perfect storm” that engulfed the media and journalists globally has threatened and continues to challenge their existence, and the core of the
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ir mission to serve the public interest. This study maps the impact of external political, economic, legal and societal factors on journalistic freedom and the way(s) news organizations and journalists operate in times of global crisis in four Southern European countries. It provides a fuller cross-national perspective on the complex relationship between media, journalism and politics in countries with existing democratic deficits. Findings are based on 32 semi-structured interviews with journalists working in four Southern European countries, namely Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, conducted in 2022. We find increased economic challenges to their fragile media markets, high level of state intervention, political parallelism in coverage of the pandemic and beyond, and numerous threats to the autonomy of journalists that hamper journalism and question its development in the future. The study’s implications are relevant to different contexts, particularly in countries where journalism and media face similar challenges." (Abstract)
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"The present study brings together a unique collection of open testimonies from 20 journalists working in different member states of the Council of Europe. Each of these journalists spoke about the risks and pressures they perceived and experienced in exercising their profession, as well as their st
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rategies to build resilience and carry on in their “mission to inform”. At times, the price these women and men have had to pay for standing by their obligation to inform the public in an impartial and complete way was enormous, ranging from intrusions and limitations on private and family life, to putting their lives at risk. This was, for example, the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who reported fearlessly on sensitive issues, notably corruption, and who was murdered just 10 days after giving a powerful interview for this book. This was the last interview Daphne Caruana Galizia ever gave. A sample of 20 interviews cannot be representative of the situation in the Council of Europe member states. The merit of these interviews is to further exemplify different forms of interference with press freedom already identified in the 2017 study, as well as journalists’ perceptions regarding the dangers of the profession and the strategies they employ to persevere in their work." (Foreword)
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"A survey published by the Council of Europe, based on a sample of 940 journalists reporting from the 47 Council of Europe member states and Belarus, shows that journalists in Europe are often exposed to serious unwarranted interference in their work, including intimidation and violence. As a conseq
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uence, many also suffer from fear, which frequently leads to self-Censorship. Almost one third of the journalists who participated in the survey, carried out between April and July 2016, had experienced physical assault over a period of three years. The most common interference, reported by 69% of the journalists, was psychological violence, including intimidation, threats, slandering and humiliation. The second most common interference was cyberbullying, reported by 53%, mostly in the form of accusations of being partisan, personal attacks, public defamation and smear campaigns. Reports of intimidation from interest groups were the third most frequent interference mentioned (50%), followed by being threatened with force (46%), intimidation by political groups (43%), targeted surveillance (39%) and intimidation by the police (35%)." (Council of Europe website)
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"Journalists may be exposed to a number of risk factors for unwarranted interference. This is often compounded by a culture of impunity. The extent of unwarranted interference, the experience of fear associated with such interference, and the consequent possibility of self-censorship among journalis
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ts still ask for more investigation, since there are few systematic studies on this topic. This research explores the prevalence of unwarranted interference, perception of likelihood/fear of such interference and possible self censorship amongst a non-probability convenience sample of 940 journalists in the 47 Council of Europe member states. The study adopts a quantitative approach and utilizes an anonymous self-report questionnaire. The preliminary results presented here show how unwarranted interference is experienced to a significant degree among journalists in Council of Europe member states." (Abstract)
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"To support joint efforts to protect journalism, there is a growing need for research-based knowledge. Acknowledging this need, the aim of this publication is to highlight and fuel journalist safety as a field of research, to encourage worldwide participation, as well as to inspire further dialogues
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and new research initiatives. The contributions represent diverse perspectives on both empirical and theoretical research and offer many quantitatively and qualitatively informed insights. The articles demonstrate that a new important interdisciplinary research field is in fact emerging, and that the fundamental issue remains identical: Violence and threats against journalists constitute an attack on freedom of expression." (Back cover)
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