Mounting concern about EU and neighbouring countries

More than 285 media freedom violations were reported from 1 May to 30 September on Mapping Media Freedom, a platform that keeps track of threats and attacks against journalists. The platform was created by Index on Censorship with support from the European Commission in May 2014 and, since May 2015, has been managed jointly with the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. The countries where the most incidents were reported are Turkey (40), Italy (38) and Hungary (20). “More than 750 incidents had already been reported by the end of the first year of this joint project, which aims to keep track of threats against media personnel,” said Alexandra Geneste, the head of the Reporters Without Borders EU-Balkans desk. “This means that several journalists are attacked in connection with their work every day in Europe, in some cases at the very heart of a region that is supposed to respect the rule of law.” Like last year, Turkey saw the biggest number media freedom violations (with 40 incidents reported), Index on Censorship notes in a report on its website adding, “In the run up to the country’s general elections in November, press freedom continues to deteriorate, with multiple cases reported of media organisations being raided and journalists being detained, imprisoned or deported.”. A physical attack on the well-known columnist Ahmet Hakan, an attack on the headquarters of the daily Hürriyet, the arrests of three VICE News journalists and the simultaneous arrests of 31 employees of Kurdish media outlets are just some of the more serious incidents in September alone. “This sudden spate of censorship in Turkey is extremely disturbing, not just for freedom of expression but also for the country’s future,” said Johann Bihr, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “Now that Turkey is again embroiled in a bloody conflict between government forces and Kurdish rebels led by the PKK, the role of free and independent media is more important than ever. Censorship just fuels tension and deepens divisions in a country already on the edge of the abyss.” Italy, which fell 24 places in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, does not look much better. Many of the 38 incidents registered by Mapping Media Freedom were mafia threats against journalists or abusive defamation suits by politicians and businessmen. “The impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these threats and attacks is a major problem,” said Corinne Tesei, a French and Italian journalist working for Ossigeno per l’Informazione, an Italian NGO that monitors acts of intimidation against the Italian media on a day-by-day basis. “Torched cars, abusive judicial proceedings, acts of censorship and death threats constitute the daily lot of many Italian journalists, some of whom prefer not to report these incidents for fear of reprisals or because they want to be able to complete their stories.” The case of Sandro Ruotolo, a journalist with La7 channel’s Servizio Pubblico show, is typical of the dangers to which the Italian media are exposed. He was placed under police protection in May after being the target of a threat by Michele Zagaria, the head of the Camorra’s Casalesi family, that he made from his cell. Zagaria threatened to “disembowel” Ruotolo after La7 broadcast a report about toxic waste pollution in which Ruotolo interviewed a Camorra member turned informer. With at least 20 major attacks on journalists from May to September, according to the Mapping Media Freedom site, Hungary continues to lag far behind in respect for media freedom. The draconian reforms adopted by Viktor Orban since becoming prime minister in 2010 pose a major threat to freedom of information. Foreign journalists who went to cover the refugee crisis on the border with Serbia were physically attacked by the Hungarian police on 18 September. A Reporters Without Borders press release condemned the violence and urged the Hungarian authorities to punish those responsible. Of the 285 incidents, 55 were reported in the seven countries that make up former Yugoslavia – Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Slovenia. Seventeen of these incidents occurred in Croatia. Mapping Media Freedom has registered 18 media freedom violations in France in the past five months, the most recent being censorship at Canal Plus. Reporters Without Borders and the French NGO “Informer n’est pas un délit” (Information is not a crime) have asked France’s Higher Council for Broadcasting (CSA) to investigate French billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré’s censorship of documentaries at Canal Plus since taking over the broadcaster in April.