The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned Media Freedom Rapid Response partners and Council of Europe Safety of Journalists Platform members in expressing support for their colleague Flutura Kusari, Senior Legal Advisor at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), ahead of her forthcoming legal action against Mentor Llugaliu. We call on the Basic Prosecution of Prishtina in Kosovo to conduct a swift, impartial, and thorough investigation into the case. On March 21, 2025, Kusari filed a criminal report against Mentor Llugaliu, an online activist and supporter of Kosovo’s ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement, accusing him…

The process for the appointment of new members to the council of Serbia’s media regulator has again been conducted in a non-transparent and discriminatory manner, in clear violation of Serbian legislation, making a mockery of democratic media reforms demanded by the European Union, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) said today with partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and SafeJournalists Network. Last week, candidates and nominator organisations which are independent of the government pulled out of the process for appointing new members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), Serbia’s most important media regulator.…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium published an updated report on the state of media freedom in Croatia following an advocacy mission to Zagreb between 19 to 21 May 2025. The purpose of the mission was to assess the government’s progress in implementing recommendations made following the MFRR online fact-finding mission in September 2024, and to identify new and emerging threats to media freedom and independent journalism. During the three-day visit, the delegation engaged with a diverse range of stakeholders, including journalists, publishers, media leaders, representatives from journalist associations and unions, and key institutional actors such as the Ministry of Culture…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined media freedom groups in welcoming the conviction of the two gang members who supplied car bomb which killed Maltese journalist. Guilty verdicts handed down to two gang members who supplied the car bomb which killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia mark another vital step forward in the fight for full justice, the undersigned media freedom organisations said today. We jointly hail the convictions of Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, reached via a jury in Valletta on June 5, as a crucial development in the fight against impunity which we hope will strengthen the…

Following the victory of Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential election on 1 June, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned media freedom organisations today in calling on the president elect to commit to building a cross-party consensus required to bolster press freedom and strengthen Polish democracy. Though the election of the Nawrocki, an ally of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, pits him in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, our organisations jointly stress the need for genuine and effective cooperation to drive forward much needed reforms to the media ecosystem, including on Strategic Lawsuits…

On 13 May, the Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented a draft of a new foreign funding bill which represents the most serious attack on Hungarian media in years and is the latest step in a more than decade-long campaign by the government to stigmatise independent journalism, undermine its business model and systematically erode media pluralism. If passed, this legislation would effectively represent the first foreign agent-style law in the European Union, marking another milestone in Hungary’s democratic decline and deepening the crackdown in what has long been the EU’s worst country for media freedom. Hungary has already…