Press freedom continued to be under sustained pressure in Europe in 2025, driven by legal threats, physical attacks and intimidation, attempts of media capture and transnational repression, according to the annual report of the partner organisations to the Council of Europe's newly established Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists.
This situation was mitigated by initiatives in several states and at the European level to improve press freedom and journalists' safety, including the adoption of action plans to protect journalists and legislation in some countries to address issues such as abusive lawsuits, disinformation and source protection.
Journalists under threat from war and during protests
The report, entitled "On the tipping point: press freedom 2025", notes that Russia's war against Ukraine remained the most serious threat to journalists: four media workers were killed, others were injured, and many remain detained in occupied territories or have disappeared.
Across Europe, journalists were often physically attacked during protests by police, political actors and protesters. This kind of attack was reported in one quarter of the states covered by the report, with the highest levels recorded in Georgia, Serbia and Türkiye.
Legal issues hampering journalism
In several countries, public service media were subject to political interference, restrictive legislation and insufficient funding. Abusive lawsuits, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), continued to be used widely to silence the media. In this regard, the platform partners welcome the initiatives in a number of countries to implement both the EU directive and the Council of Europe recommendation against SLAPPs.
The report also expresses concern about the reported digital surveillance of journalists via spyware, the transnational repression of journalists, "foreign agent" legislation adopted or planned in several countries, and the precarious working conditions of media workers in many countries.
Where were the serious threats to media freedom in Europe?
In 2025, the platform partners published 344 alerts of serious threats to media freedom, a significant increase (+29%) from 2024, when 266 were registered. The countries with the highest number of alerts were Russia (50), Türkiye (49), Georgia (35), Serbia (35) and Ukraine (27) - mostly related to Russian-occupied territories or attributed to Russian forces.
The most frequent category of alerts (90) was related to attacks on journalists' physical safety and integrity, including the killing of four media workers by Russian drone strikes, Ukrainian journalists Olena Hramova, Yevhen Karmazin and Tetyana Kulyk, and French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, and the death of the Turkish freelance journalist Hakan Tosun, after a brutal assault. By 31 December 2025, 51 killings of journalists remained unresolved on the platform.
The report warns against the systematic use of deprivation of liberty as a tool of media control. As of 31 December 2025, 148 journalists were held in detention across Europe, including 36 in Azerbaijan, 32 in Russia, 27 in Belarus, 26 held by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine, 24 in Türkiye, two in Armenia and one in Georgia.
The platform partners urge the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the 46 Council of Europe member states to enforce press freedom standards. They recommend, as a matter of priority, strengthening journalists' safety, fully implementing anti-SLAPP standards, safeguarding the independence of public service media, and increasing the protection of women journalists, among other measures.
The partners highlight that the Council of Europe´s New Democratic Pact for Europe should place media freedom, media pluralism and journalist safety at the core of democratic resilience, include safeguards against disinformation and media capture, as well as a roadmap to integrate journalist-safety objectives into relevant Council of Europe activities.
While regretting that in 2025, fewer than one third of the alerts received a government reply, the partners call on states to increase their cooperation with the platform.
The platform's annual report covers the 46 Council of Europe member states, as well as Russia, following its expulsion from the Council of Europe in 2022, and Belarus.
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The Council of Europe's Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists was set up by the Council of Europe in 2015, in cooperation with prominent international NGOs active in the field of the freedom of expression and associations of journalists, to provide information which may serve as a basis for dialogue with member states about possible protective or remedial action.
The 15 partners are the European Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the Association of European Journalists, ARTICLE 19, Reporters without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Index on Censorship, the International Press Institute, the International News Safety Institute, Rory Peck Trust, the European Broadcasting Union, PEN International, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Free Press Unlimited and the Justice for Journalists Foundation.
