Europe’s Press Freedom on the brink: 2025 report reveals alarming surge in threats

In a stark warning that press freedom in Europe is teetering at a “tipping point,” the Council of Europe’s Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists unveiled its annual report on Tuesday.

Titled “On the Tipping Point: Press Freedom in Europe 2025,” the document, compiled by 15 partner media freedom NGOs and journalists’ associations, chronicles a year of escalating dangers for journalists across the continent. Presented at a press conference in the Press Club Brussels Europe, the report is based on 344 alerts of serious threats to media freedom submitted in 2025 – a 29% spike from the 266 recorded in 2024. This surge underscores a hostile environment marked by legal abuse, physical violence, economic precariousness, and political interference, with the ongoing war in Ukraine casting the longest shadow.

The launch event featured raw testimonies from journalists facing these threats firsthand, highlighting the human cost of eroding media freedoms. Tamás Bodoky, co-founder of Hungary’s investigative outlet Atlatszo.hu, described a relentless government campaign aimed at starving critical media of foreign funding in order to drive them into bankruptcy. He pointed to the involvement of the country’s secret services and placed the newly established “Sovereign Protection Office” at the center of these efforts, which he portrayed as a coordinated state machinery designed to dismantle media critical of the ruling party. His testimony aligns with the report’s broader findings on “media capture” in Central Europe, where authorities deploy regulatory pressure, discriminatory state advertising, and financial strangulation to favor pro-government outlets while suffocating independent journalism.

Irma Dimitradze, from Georgia’s Batumelebi & Netgazeti, delivered one of the most chilling assessments, calling her country’s slide “the sharpest authoritarian turn” she has read or heard about. “2025 saw violent crackdowns on protests, with journalists beaten, arrested, and labelled as ‘foreign agents’ under new laws,” she explained. The report details how Georgia’s “foreign influence” legislation, modelled on Russian precedents, has forced media outlets to register or face fines, stifling coverage of government corruption and EU accession protests. Dimitradze’s testimony illustrates a broader trend in the South Caucasus and Eastern Europe, where authoritarian regimes weaponize “national security” to curb dissent.

Gunel Safarova, Acting Director of Azerbaijan’s Abzas Media, delivered one of the most poignant testimonies. She focused on the dire situation facing her jailed colleagues, including several female journalists, emphasizing that Azerbaijan holds a particularly grim record in the region for imprisoning media workers. “We have many colleagues behind bars, including women who are enduring harsh conditions simply for doing their jobs,” Safarova said, highlighting cases where investigative reporters from Abzas Media and other outlets face long sentences on fabricated charges like smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion – often linked to their exposure of high-level corruption. She underscored the gender dimension of the repression, noting the deliberate targeting and mistreatment of women journalists, who are frequently isolated in remote prisons and subjected to abuse.

Her most striking line captured the geopolitical reality driving this crackdown: “We are victims of gas and oil.” Safarova explained that Azerbaijan’s vast energy resources give its regime leverage over European leaders, who, in her view, “keep their eyes shut on human rights issues” when negotiating energy deals or maintaining strategic partnerships. This economic dependence, she argued, enables impunity for the systematic silencing of independent media, with little meaningful pushback from the EU or other Western powers despite repeated international condemnations.

Dragana Žarcović Obradović of Serbia’s Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) said that Listening to the testimonies from colleagues in Georgia and Azerbaijan, she said she suddenly understood who the “teachers” of the authorities in Belgrade truly are.

“When I heard Irma and Gunel speak, it became clear: the methods we face in Serbia are being imported from those very places,” Obradović remarked, pointing to a clear pattern of authoritarian learning across borders. She then turned to one of the most pervasive tools of repression in her country: SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). “BIRN alone is facing five active SLAPP suits,” she stated, before delivering a sharp punchline: “And the mayor of Belgrade is probably the biggest ‘slapper’ internationally.” Her comment highlighted how local politicians weaponize defamation and civil lawsuits to silence investigative journalism, draining resources and creating a chilling effect on reporting. Obradović’s testimony reinforced the report’s findings on the Balkans as a region where judicial harassment and political pressure increasingly mirror tactics seen in more overtly authoritarian states, underscoring the regional diffusion of repressive strategies against independent media.

Other panelists from the Platform’s partners amplified these stories with systemic analysis. Nicholas Williams of Index on Censorship decried the rise of “creative legal abuse that becomes commonplace”, where laws on defamation, data protection, or counter-terrorism are twisted to target journalists. “We’re seeing SLAPPs not just in authoritarian states but in democracies like the UK and France,” Williams said, referencing cases where wealthy individuals sue to intimidate reporters. The report quantifies this: legal threats accounted for nearly 40% of alerts, up from previous years, often exacerbated by slow judicial processes that prolong harassment.

Julie Majerczak from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) emphasized restrictions on international journalists covering protests, not only in authoritarian countries. “In France and the UK, we’ve seen foreign correspondents denied entry or accreditation during climate protests or social unrest,” she said. Majerczak criticized the EU for “not doing enough – not at the level of expectations”, accusing Brussels of being “too afraid of losing those countries” like Serbia and Georgia to hold them accountable.

“The European Media Freedom Act is a step, but enforcement is weak; we’re accommodating politicians who undermine democracy,” she argued.

Ricardo Gutierrez of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) focused on the “growing precariousness of journalists”, from freelance instability to outright violence. “Economic pressures—layoffs, gig work without protections – make reporters vulnerable to self-censorship,” Gutierrez said. He lambasted member states as “even more disappointing than the EU – the real inactive power”, pointing to failures in implementing the Anti-SLAPP Directive or protecting whistleblowers.

The war in Ukraine remains the gravest threat, with four journalists killed in 2025 alone. The report praises Ukraine’s efforts to investigate attacks but warns of Russian disinformation campaigns targeting media. In occupied territories, journalists face torture and forced “confessions.” Transnational repression extends beyond: Azerbaijani and Belarusian exiles in Europe report surveillance, while Turkish authorities pursue critics abroad.

Yet, hope flickers in solidarity. Bodoky highlighted cross-border networks like Forbidden Stories, which continue investigations after journalists are silenced. Safarova credited international advocacy for securing releases in Azerbaijan. The Platform, established in 2015, has prompted responses from states in 60% of alerts, though implementation lags.

“We need a journalist NATO,” Irma Dimitadze declared, saying that she quotes a colleague from Correctiv, Joanna Krawczyk, envisioning a united, cross-border alliance of media professionals, a force that in her words exists, but is not used.

This report isn’t just data – it’s a manifesto for action. With journalists as democracy’s watchdogs, Europe can’t afford to let them be muzzled. As Dimitradze put it, “When media falls, so does freedom.” The question now: Will the EU and its members heed the call before it’s too late?

Caption: From left to right: Nicholas Williams, Gunel Safarova, Julie Majerczak, Irma Dimitadze, Ricardo Gutierrez [Photo by Georgi Gotev]