The MFRR Summit is back! This year, the conference titled “Press Freedom on the Line” will take place online from 29 – 31 March 2023.

Reflecting the MFRR’s core campaign areas, the online conference will host in-depth discussions on journalist safety, media capture, the rule of law, and SLAPPs.

Hosted on Zoom for interactive participation, and simultaneously livestreamed on the MFRR YouTube channel, the conference will play host to a range of panel discussions, live interviews, and keynote speeches with journalists, media freedom experts, policy-makers, and other stakeholders all working to defend press freedom.

Take a look at the daily breakdown below:

Day 1: Safety of Journalists (29 March)

Journalist safety in Europe was thrown into the spotlight in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with dozens of journalists killed since 24 February. Outside of Ukraine, Europe remains an increasingly hostile environment for journalists to report from. From online attacks to physical violence, Day 1 of the Summit will highlight threats to journalists in EU member states and candidate countries, sparking conversations on initiatives to support journalists in exile, reporting from a conflict zone, surveillance and spyware, and harassment in the newsroom.

Day 2: Rule of Law and SLAPPs (30 March)

Across Europe we regularly see powerful entities abusing legal systems to stifle and smother critical reporting. Strategic litigation poses a major threat to independent media across the continent, in particular in countries where rule of law is weakest and vulnerable to abuse. So far, the MFRR monitoring partners have recorded a total of 113 SLAPPs on Mapping Media Freedom since 2014 – highlighting the ever-present threat this issue poses to press freedom. Day 2 of the Summit will shine a spotlight on these topics as experts discuss initiatives to counter SLAPPs, impunity for crimes against journalists, and disinformation laws.

Day 3: State Capture (31 March)

From Hungary and Poland to the Czech Republic and Slovenia, Europe – in particular central Europe – has become a hotbed for state capture of media. The panels on day 3 will look into the crisis of political exploitation of the media through the abuse of state economic and regulatory levers. It will examine issues around media pluralism, ownership transparency and the abuse of state budgets to fund clientelist media in illiberal democracies. It will also debate whether the EU’s Media Freedom Act can provide the tools to prevent the march towards politically captured media.

In the coming weeks, more information will be shared about the conference but for now, save the date! Keep an eye on the MFRR newsletter, Twitter, and website for all the latest updates.

A new Centre for the Safety of Journalists and Media Workers has been established in Thessaloniki (Greece). The centre, whose opening was delayed by two years due to Covid-19 restrictions, will deal with issues related to the safety of journalists and media workers in war and crisis zones, as well as in daily work. It is supported by the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace (ESIEMTH) and is under the scientific responsibility of the Peace Journalism Laboratory of the School of Journalism and Mass Media Studies in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The Centre will offer a 29-hour course on the safety of journalists and media workers covering war zones. The course will be divided into two parts: theory and practical training in the field. The practical training will include counselling, assistance in providing appropriate equipment before and during the journalistic assignment and psychological support. In addition to the courses, the Centre has created support tools that journalists and media workers can use in the field or in areas where they face critical situations, such as natural disasters or humanitarian crises.

“The safety of journalists is threatened in a much more complex way than in the past, and not only in war zones or in crisis situations. This is why unions need to develop a more diverse and comprehensive approach to support and train media workers to deal with these threats,” says Nikolaos Karras, President of ESIEMTH.

Eight institutions and organisations signed the Memorandum of Understanding on 20 January 2023, including the Greek Secretariat General for  Communication & Media, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), the Union of Journalists of Macedonia and Thrace (ESIEMTH), the Athens News Agency – Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) and the Greek public broadcaster (E.R.T.).

In May 2023, the Centre will hold its first training courses as part of the second edition of the Safety for Journalists Training School.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) fully supports the call by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, to impose a moratorium on the use of highly intrusive spyware by governments. The EFJ recalls that many journalists have been victims of this abusive surveillance, notably in Hungary, Greece, Spain, France, Belgium and Azerbaijan.

In 2021, the Pegasus Project, one of the most ambitious transnational investigative journalism projects, coordinated by Forbidden Stories and assisted by Amnesty International’s forensic lab, exposed the use of spyware to surreptitiously penetrate journalists’ communications.

In Hungary, investigations continued into the use of Pegasus by state intelligence agencies to surveil at least five journalists and media owners. In January 2022, the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information issued a report concluding that in all the cases they investigated, including those involving journalists, all legal criteria for the application of the spyware were met and the spyware was used to protect national security. No explanation was given about why these journalists posed a threat to national security..

Even though European governments promised to clamp down on illegal surveillance, new cases have emerged in 2022, especially in Greece where a new spyware, Predator, was allegedly used by the National Intelligence Agency to spy on journalists. In April 2022, in Spain, it was revealed that four Catalan journalists were among those to have their smartphones targeted or infected with Pegasus between 2017 and 2020. Other cases have been reported in France, Belgium and Azerbaijan, in 2021.

“Ample evidence exists that Pegasus spyware has been used illegally and for purposes of domestic and international espionage rather than legitimate public safety concerns,” said Dunja Mijatović. “The targeting of journalists with spyware endangers the confidentiality of their sources and, with that, the functioning and credibility of one of the most crucial pillars of our democratic societies: free access to information for all and the promotion of a pluralist media environment. To prevent grave human rights violations stemming from the use of commercial spyware like Pegasus, Council of Europe member states must comply with their obligations under the European Convention as interpreted by the Court and ensure the legality, legitimacy, and necessity and proportionality of each such use.”

“It is high time for Council of Europe member states to recognise that the Pegasus spyware scandal is more than just an embarrassing episode,” she added. “I call on Council of Europe member states to impose a strict moratorium on the export, sale, transfer, and use of highly intrusive zero-click spyware tools such as Pegasus, and to put in place a precise, human rights compliant legislative framework for the use of modern surveillance technology. This framework should provide for meaningful procedural guarantees, robust systems of ex-ante and ex-post oversight through judicial review and parliamentary scrutiny, and effective redress mechanisms for victims. (…) Member states should further pay enhanced attention to the fact that the spyware industry is continuously developing new tools that, without safeguards and oversight, can be weaponised for nefarious purposes and facilitate human rights abuses.”

“In the face of such a threat, the EFJ calls on the European Parliament, which will start debating the issue, to strengthen the provisions of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) to combat all forms of surveillance that jeopardise the protection of journalistic sources,” said EFJ President Maja Sever. “The proposed EMFA provisions are a step backwards in the protection of journalistic sources as they do not correspond to the protection of journalistic sources as provided in the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights guaranteeing the right of journalists to protect their sources.”

Highly intrusive spyware threatens the essence of #humanrights – It is high time for ⁦@coe⁩ member states to recognise that the #Pegasus spyware scandal is more than just an embarrassing episode. ⁦@PACE_News⁩ https://t.co/SgQbUa8ptY

— Dunja Mijatovic (@Dunja_Mijatovic) January 27, 2023

A few hours before the Extraordinary Assembly of the Football Federation of Kosovo – FFK, journalists, and media in Kosovo have no information about the place and time where this event will be held.

AJK calls on FFK to organize an open and transparent Assembly so that the public is informed about the important decisions that will be taken in it. This becomes even more important at a time when the biggest football house in Kosovo has not yet completed the licensing process. In any case, FFK must make the necessary conditions for the media to report.

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) mandate covers all EU member states and candidate countries.

On 15 December 2022, the leaders of the European Union voted unanimously to grant EU candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this development, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) can now include the country in its activities – including monitoring, support projects, and advocacy work.

Journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been appearing frequently in reports related to attacks and threats against them. Reporters who focus on corruption, minority rights, LGBTI+, radicalism, and war crimes have been working under pressure from politicians and criminal groups. Politicians in the country have also been targeting journalists frequently and their influence over public media and regulatory bodies has been worrying. We are glad that our mandate now covers Bosnia and Herzegovina so we can help to protect journalists and strengthen media pluralism in a country that badly needs it.