Editorial  “Medal” for Azerbaijan for being leading jailer of journalists Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, EFJ President As the host of the first European Games, Azerbaijan has certainly won the “medal”, even before the opening of the game, for its reputation as one of the leading jailers of journalists and its hostile treatments towards journalists and media. While local journalists are being put behind bars for their critical voices, many foreign journalists are barred from entering the country to report about the Games. The press freedom situation is at its worst on record when Azerbaijan ordered to shut down the office of…

“Despite existing legal guarantees, media freedom in Bulgaria is currently impeded or threatened by a combination of practices which, taken together, create an environment conducive to widespread self- censorship among journalists and undue external pressure on media,” said the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks in a special report published today (22/06/2015) about the situation of human rights and media freedom in Bulgaria. “This new report published by the Commissioner for Human Rights confirms the bad reputation of the Bulgarian media. The country is regularly named as the lowest ranking European Union member state for media freedom in several international…