Region
Europe - Central Asia
Toxic Kremlin influence reaches EU
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Politically throttled east

The situation has suffered an overall decline in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where  press freedom is not guaranteed and the media are increasingly used as transmission belts for disinformation campaigns.

The Russian state (162nd) has pursued its crusade against independent journalism, while more than 1,500 journalists have fled abroad since the invasion of UkraineRussia’s two-place rise in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, due to other countries falling, obscures a fall in its global score as the list of journalists and media branded as “foreign agents” or “undesirable” has lengthened and journalists continue to be jailed arbitrarily. The two rivals for the region’s lowest ranking are Belarus (167th), whose government persecutes journalists on the pretext of combatting “extremism”, and Turkmenistan (175th), whose president has unlimited power and bans all independent reporting.

Countries that have suffered significant falls include Georgia (103rd), which has fallen 26 places. Its ruling party continues to polarise society, cultivates a rapprochement with Moscow and conducts a policy that is increasingly hostile to press freedom. Azerbaijan (164th) has also seen all of its indicators fall, especially its political indicator, after cracking down on the media before its presidential election.

One of the Index’s surprises is the 18-place jump by Ukraine (61st) due to improvements in both its security indicator – fewer journalists killed – and its political one. Although the rule of law has not been enforced over the entire country since the Russian invasion, which has prevented the Ukrainian authorities from guaranteeing press freedom in the occupied territories, political interference in free Ukraine has fallen. This kind of pressure is limited by the fact that the media denounce it.

European Union v. “Orbanisation”

In the west, despite the European Union’s adoption of its first media freedom law, the EMFA, and the fact that three European countries – NorwayDenmark and Sweden – still top the Index, politicians are trying to reduce the space for independent journalism. Those at the forefront of this dangerous trend include Hungary’s pro-Kremlin prime minister, Viktor Orban, and his counterpart in Slovakia (29th), Robert Fico. Press freedom is being put to the test by the ruling parties in Hungary (67th), Malta (73rd) and Greece (88th), the EU’s three worst-ranked countries. Giorgia Meloni’s Italy (46th) has also fallen five places.

Political interests stifle journalism in several countries that are candidates for EU membership – Bosnia-Herzegovina (81st), Serbia (98th) and Albania (99th). Türkiye (158th) continues to imprison journalists and undermine the media by means of online censorship and its control of the judiciary.

The political environment for journalism has improved in Poland (up 10 to 47th) and Bulgaria (up 12 to 59th) thanks to new governments with more concern for the right to information. Germany has joined the ranks of the Index’s top ten countries, improving its political indicator with a decline in attacks on journalists by far-right groups. In France (21st) and the United Kingdom (23rd), press freedom is not threatened by major political violations. But vigilance is still needed, as seen with French journalist Ariane Lavrilleux’s arrest in response to a complaint by the armed forces ministry, and with Julian Assange’s continued detention in the United Kingdom, where exile journalists, especially Iranians, are also threatened by their country of origin without effective protection by the host nation’s authorities.

Countries

Name Index Global score Diff. score 2023 Diff. position 2023
Albania
99
54.1
-3
3
Germany
10
83.84
2
-11
Andorra
72
61.44
-14
35
Armenia
43
71.6
1
-6
Austria
32
74.69
-3
3
Azerbaijan
164
27.99
-12
13
Belarus
167
26.8
-11
10
Belgium
16
81.49
5
-15
Bosnia-Herzegovina
81
58.85
-7
17
Bulgaria
59
65.32
3
-12
Cyprus
65
63.14
-5
10
Northern Cyprus
90
56.72
-5
14
Croatia
48
68.79
-3
6
Denmark
2
89.6
0
-1
Spain
30
76.01
1
-6
Estonia
6
86.44
1
-2
Finland
5
86.55
-1
0
France
21
78.65
0
-3
Georgia
103
53.05
-8
26
Greece
88
57.15
2
-19
Hungary
67
62.98
0
-5
Ireland
8
85.59
-4
6
Iceland
18
80.13
-3
0
Italy
46
69.8
-3
5
Kazakhstan
142
41.11
-4
8
Kyrgyzstan
120
49.11
0
-2
Kosovo
75
60.19
-8
19
Latvia
12
82.9
-1
-4
Liechtenstein
15
81.52
-3
4
Lithuania
13
81.73
-5
6
Luxembourg
11
83.8
2
-9
North Macedonia
36
73.78
-1
-2
Malta
73
60.96
1
-11
Moldova
31
74.86
-3
3
Montenegro
40
73.21
-1
1
Norway
1
91.89
-4
0
Uzbekistan
148
37.27
-8
11
Netherlands
4
87.73
0
-2
Poland
47
69.17
2
-10
Portugal
7
85.9
1
-2
Czechia
17
80.14
-3
3
Romania
49
68.45
-1
-4
United Kingdom
23
77.51
-1
-3
Russia
162
29.86
-5
-2
Serbia
98
54.48
-5
7
Slovakia
29
76.03
-7
12
Slovenia
42
72.6
2
-8
Sweden
3
88.32
0
-1
Switzerland
9
84.01
0
-3
Tajikistan
155
33.31
-6
2
Turkmenistan
175
22.01
-3
-1
Türkiye
158
31.6
-2
-7
Ukraine
61
65
4
-18