MFRR partners, alongside leading media freedom organisations wrote to Chairperson of the Albanian Parliament, Gramoz Ruçi and Albanian parliamentarians to reiterate their serious concern that the amendments fall short of international law and standards.

As noted also by the Venice Commission, the legislative proposals suffer from vagueness and have a number of fundamental flaws that risk causing a chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression online and restricting Albanian citizens’ right to access to information.

The International Press Institute (IPI) wrote to the UK Ministry of Defence and the Secretary of State for Defence about a recent decision by its press office to refuse comment to investigative news outlet Declassified UK.

IPI expressed concern that the sudden decision to exclude the publication from a MOD comment, and the subsequent lack of communication on the matter, appeared to have been taken in retaliation for its previous critical reporting and editorial stance, raising issues for press freedom.

The letter, signed by IPI’s Deputy Director Scott Griffen, sought clarification over whether Declassified UK had been placed on a list of outlets barred for receiving official communications and clarification over MOD policy on excluding certain outlets.

A coalition of 16 press freedom, freedom of expression and journalists‘ organisations have urged EU Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager to act on complaints that the Hungarian government has violated EU state aid rules to undermine media pluralism.

Over the past 10 years, the Hungarian government has dismantled media freedom and pluralism largely by manipulating the media market, weaponizing state resources to punish critical media and reward government mouthpieces.

The European Commission has not responded to specific complaints – filed in 2016 and 2018, respectively – alleging the abuse of state aid in Hungary to distort the media landscape, despite the fact that protecting free market competition and ensuring fair use of state aid are core EU values.

On 27 June 2020, Neville Gafà, a former person of trust in the Office of the Maltese Prime Minister, issued a threat against Italian journalist, Nello Scavo of the national newspaper, Avvenire. In response to a tweet posted by AlarmPhone, an independent support organisation for people crossing the Mediterranean, Gafà called on the organisation to “stop your dirty business”. When Scavo responded questioning the former official’s record, Gafà called for him to “stop your dirty business. If not, we will be stopping you.” 

On 7th August, MFRR partners and free expression organisations sent a letter to Maltese and Italian authorities calling for robust, thorough and transparent investigation into Neville Gafà.

On 19th August, Neville Gafà confirmed he was being investigated: “I am being investigated by Malta’s police after a complaint was filed against me by a foreign journalist. A magisterial inquiry has been requested by the foreign ministry – the Maltese ministry, not a foreign one. No such complaints will stop me from fighting or broadcast what is happening in the Mediterranean. I haven’t even started. There are no compromises on Malta.”

However, we have not received a response from either Maltese or Italian authorities.

On 22 July 2020, László Bodolai, the head of Magyar Fejlődésért Alapítvány (Foundation for Hungarian Progress, owner of Index Zrt.), fired the Index.hu editor-In-Chief, Szabolcs Dull. After a letter to the owners signed by the outlet’s journalistic team was refused calling for Dull to be reinstated, the editorial board, made up of Attila Tóth-Szenesi, Veronika Munk, and János Haász, alongside 70 journalists tendered their resignation from Index.  

This is the latest attack on media freedom in Hungary and represents a further reduction of the space within which free and independent media outlets can operate.

Update: On 18 September Vera Jourova, Vice-President of the European Commission responded to this letter on behalf of the President Ursula von der Leyen

MFRR partners and leading free expression, journalist and media freedom organisations have come together to call for all attacks and threats to journalists to be investigated fully to ensure that perpetrators of violence, including police officers and other state entities, are held to account.

This open letter has been sent to the Minister of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, Dr Nebojša Stefanović

An independent media is vital to hold governments to account, inform the public and share information that strengthens civic debate and the recent actions to restrict access, discredit critical journalism and isolate journalists and media workers highlights a number of distinct threats to the state of press freedom in the UK

UPDATE: On 27th July, the MFRR received a letter from the Direct Communications Unit at 10 Downing Street in relation to the open letter sent on 29th May. Read the UK Government’s response below