The EU Rule of Law report seriously underestimates the decline in press freedom
The European Commission’s 2026 report on the rule of law, published on 17 July, underestimates the seriousness of the attacks on press freedom and media pluralism. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls on the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions to take a critical look at this report. The EFJ believes that the EU’s mechanisms for addressing the decline in the rule of law are largely ineffective, as, despite four years of recommendations from the European Commission, most Member States have failed to turn guidance into tangible action.
The report states that “civil society organisations and professional groups representing judges, prosecutors, lawyers and journalists play an important role in promoting and safeguarding the rule of law”. Despite this assessment, the organisation representing journalists in Europe, the EFJ, considers that the 2026 report seriously underestimates the threats facing the European media ecosystem.
The report notes the entry into force of positive legislation in the EU, such as the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and the Anti-SLAPP Directive, but says little about the delayed implementation of these regulations and the lack of willingness on the part of many governments.
According to the report, “media freedom organisations have expressed growing concerns about the state of media freedom, although the overall situation in the EU remains broadly positive”. The EFJ strongly disputes this sugar-coated view of reality. Monitoring platforms (MFRR and the Council of Europe), as well as the recent ‘Media Pluralism Monitor’ report, and the EESC report on journalists’ working conditions confirm that the situation is seriously deteriorating across the European Union:
- the MFRR Annual Monitoring Report for 2025 documented 1,481 press freedom violations affecting 2,377 journalists or media-related entities in 36 European countries between January and December 2025;
- in one quarter of the states covered by the CoE report, journalists were often physically attacked during protests by police, political actors and protesters – on the CoE Platform, the number of alerts relating to the 27 EU Member States rose by more than 17 per cent between 2024 and 2025;
- the MPM report showed that only six countries (out of the 31 analysed) offer favourable conditions for free and independent journalism (Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Ireland) – In its Recommendations section, the report calls on the European Union to introduce “stronger binding measures to protect journalists’ working conditions, including the effective enforcement of the Minimum Wage Directive”;
- in December, in their first ever ruling on the working conditions of journalists in Europe, the three components of the EESC – trade unions, employers and civil society – joined forces to demand concrete measures against the worrying precariousness of journalists, which poses a serious threat to democracy.
Regarding journalists’ safety, the Commission’s report welcomes the fact that three countries (Denmark, Croatia and Latvia) have adopted national action plans to better protect journalists, and that two other countries (Luxembourg and Portugal) have taken additional measures to strengthen their national plans. The EFJ would have preferred the Commission to have criticised the 22 other countries that have not yet taken any action. The same conclusion can be drawn regarding the widespread lack of commitment on the part of Member States to counter the surveillance of journalists: the report merely notes legal proceedings (which have so far come to nothing) in Greece and Italy.
The national reports appear to be even more biased. This is particularly the case for Italy (read our recent MFRR report on Italy), where a serious erosion of journalistic source confidentiality – including instances of spying on journalists – is described by the Commission’s report as a situation “where no progress has been made”. Similarly, the Rule of Law report highlights alleged progress regarding the financial independence of Italy’s public media (even though the government has cut its funding!). The Commission’s report makes no mention of the poor governance at public broadcaster RAI, which has not had a chairperson on its board of directors for the past year and a half.
“If the annual report on the rule of law is to become a tedious, bureaucratic formality, with no real ability to influence Member States, what is the point of it?” asked the president of the Italian journalists’ union FNSI, Vittorio Di Trapani.
“The overall impression is that of a report which attempts to normalise a situation that is extremely worrying for democracy,” concluded EFJ President Maja Sever. “Just on example: it is shocking to note that the damning report published in December by the EESC on working conditions for journalists in the European Union is not even mentioned by the Rule of Law report!… It’s almost a provocation!”.
