Journalists across Europe are facing a rapidly deteriorating working environment marked by violence, intimidation and legal persecution, according to a new annual report
released by the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform.
The report paints a stark picture: the number of serious press freedom violations recorded in Europe jumped by 29 per cent in 2025 compared with the previous year. In total, 344 incidents were documented across the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, as well as in Russia and Belarus. That figure is up sharply from 266 cases in 2024.
An alliance of 15 international press freedom organisations runs the platform, which tracks threats ranging from physical attacks to judicial harassment. Violence against journalists remains the most common category of abuse. Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine recorded the highest number of incidents.
War and repression
Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to represent the gravest danger for journalists on the continent. In 2025, Ukrainian reporters Olena Gramova, Yevhen Karmazin and Tetjana Kulyk, along with French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, were killed in Russian drone attacks. Others have gone missing or are being held in territories under Russian occupation.
Inside Russia, repression is tightening further. Independent journalists who fled the country are increasingly being tried and sentenced in absentia, underscoring the Kremlin’s efforts to silence critical reporting beyond its borders.
Growing number of journalists behind bars
The report also warns of a troubling rise in the use of imprisonment as a tool to control the media. By the end of 2025, at least 148 journalists and media workers were behind bars in Europe.
The highest numbers were recorded in Azerbaijan (36), Russia (32), Belarus (27), Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories (26) and Turkey (24). Smaller numbers were also reported in Armenia and Georgia. Press freedom groups say these detentions often rely on vague national security laws or politically motivated charges.
Precarious working conditions
Beyond direct repression, journalists are increasingly struggling with poor and insecure working conditions. According to the latest assessment by the Media Pluralism Monitor, only Denmark and Germany currently offer what can be described as good working conditions for journalists.
Belgium, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden still fall into a relatively low-risk category, but conditions are far more fragile in countries such as Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Romania and Spain, which the study describes as having very poor and precarious environments for media workers.
Political pressure on public media
The report also highlights political interference as a growing threat, pointing to a controversy in Belgium involving the public broadcaster RTBF. Last year, MR party leader Georges-Louis Bouchez publicly floated the idea of privatising or even abolishing the broadcaster.
He was sharply criticised by the Association of Professional Journalists after a leaked phone conversation in which he allegedly made physical threats against an RTBF journalist. Bouchez later said his remarks had been misinterpreted.
Warnings ignored
Created in 2015, the Safety of Journalists Platform relies on alerts issued by journalists’ associations, unions and NGOs to flag serious threats to media freedom. States are expected to respond to these alerts and take action to prevent impunity.
Yet the report notes a persistent lack of engagement from governments. Fewer than half of all alerts receive an official response, a failure that press freedom advocates say emboldens attackers and deepens the climate of fear.
The platform’s conclusion is blunt: without stronger political will to protect journalists, Europe risks normalising hostility toward the press at a time when independent reporting is more essential than ever. Photo by Pressestelle BFK Urfahr-Umgebung, Wikimedia commons.