Goodbye to Freedom?

Written by journalists active in 20 member states of the Council of Europe and published by the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), this survey of media freedom investigates the relationships between the media and governments across Europe. According to the AEJ, it shows that "encroachments on free speech, while most acute in Russia, prevail throughout Europe, including the long-established western democracies. ...The Survey ... provides a snapshot of the many different aspects of the continuing struggle for media freedom and independence, including violence against journalists, legal barriers, and distorting political and commercial pressures on media workers."

As stated in the document, "the evidence from the AEJ Survey of 20 countries leads to these broad conclusions:

• Media freedom and independence in Europe are not assured, and in some of the countries surveyed they are growing weaker...
  
• The problems of direct political interference in media affairs and contents are more acute in the “new democracies” of Central and Eastern Europe; but Western European countries can no longer be confident that they offer a more secure model of media freedom. New political and economic pressures in many of the older EU states mean that media freedom and independence there, too, are insecure.
• Most of the Reports in the Survey describe a marked trend in the media towards sensationalism and reporting about celebrities and trivia, which have served to downgrade the reputation of journalists in the mind of the general public.
  
• Impartial and thorough reporting about alleged failings or abuses by those in authority depend on the media’s confidence in their own independence, on a legal framework for openness and on a broad level of support for the media as representatives of the public interest.
• In Europe, popular concern for freedom of expression and media freedom is undeveloped compared with the support for other causes. National sections of the Association of European Journalists are actively involved in strengthening cross-border links between journalists in different regions of Europe..."
  

The main findings from the country reports include violence and intimidation of journalists and editors, criminal prosecution of journalists using secrecy or defamation laws and court orders to reveal sources of information, political influence in public broadcasting, media ownership by powerful business interests with political ties, exploitation of journalists through job insecurity, and media “wars” of words with those in political power, some of whom are trying to court the media while others are trying to vilify them. In conclusion, the document reviews the steps needed for media self-regulation with a note on censorship as a possible consequence of regulation.

Ed. note: The AEJ website now contains a February 2008 update entitled "Goodbye to Media Freedom?"