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AEJ Media Freedom Survey

 

Key documents

The AEJ published the first Survey of Media Freedom across Europe in November 2007. Entitled Goodbye to Freedom? and edited by William Horsley, AEJ Media Freedom Representative, it was debated at the AEJ's 2007 Congress in Dublin.

 

On 28 February 2008, a Survey Update entitled Goodbye to Media Freedom? was published. On that day, William Horsley presented its main findings to the Brussels-based press corps in the Résidence Palace building opposite the European Commission.

 

The Survey was further expanded in November 2008 in the Collection of AEJ Reports. These were presented to the 2008 Linz Congress, and further presentations were made at the 2009 Maastricht Congress, the 2010 Ordu Congress, the 2011 Bucharest Congress and the 2012 Offida Congress.

 

 

Country reports

 

These reports combine the texts that relate to each country from the Survey. Those marked * contain extracts from the Update and those marked ** contain extracts from the November 2008 Linz Reports

 

Introduction and Summary (William Horsley)* **

Armenia (Liana Sayadyan)* **

Austria (Otmar Lahodynsky)* **

Belgium (Michel Theys)

Croatia (Zdenko Duka)* **

Cyprus

    Part One (Kyriakos Pierides)*

    Part Two (Hasan Kahvecioglu)*

Czech Republic (Tomas Vrba)* **

France (Régis Verley)*

Germany (Horst Keller)

Greece (Athanase Papandropoulos)

Hungary (József Martin)* **

Ireland (Joe Carroll)* **

Italy (Carmelo Occhino and Elzbieta Cywiak)*

Moldova (Aneta Grosu) **

Netherlands (Fred Sanders) **

Poland (Krzysztof Bobinski)* **

Romania (Ruxandra Ana)

Russian Federation (Manana Aslamazyan and Gillian McCormack)*

Serbia (Nebojsa Ristic) **

Slovakia (Peter Kerlik and Tibor Macak)* **

Spain (Pedro González)* **

Turkey (Dogan Tilic)*

United Kingdom and EU (Celia Hampton and William Horsley)*

 

 

 

Full Survey (535 KB)

Goodbye to Freedom? November 2007

 

February 2008 Update (166 KB)

Goodbye to Media Freedom? February 2008

 

Survey and Update in French (454 KB)

Presentation by the French Section of the AEJ. The translation was done by Le Taurillon, the online magazine of the young people's section of the European Movement in France. Its website includes an interview with William Horsley

 

Collected AEJ reports 2008 (242 KB)

 

 

The original Survey covers 20 countries in eastern and western Europe and highlights evidence that media freedom in Europe is threatened by restrictive laws, hidden political and commercial pressures, threats of jail, intimidation and in some cases even murder.

 

The Update contains new evidence from 15 countries that media freedom is in retreat because of widespread violence, censorship, meddling in broadcasting, commercial pressures and security laws. William Horsley charges European governments and EU institutions with complacency and puts forward three remedies for repairing the damage done to media freedom and independence. He argues that journalists should inform the public better about the dangers, and return to the “gold standard” of objective reporting and proper scrutiny of the actions of governments.

 

Transcript in full of William Horsley's remarks in Brussels, 28 February 2008

 

Euractiv report on the 28 February press conference with links to many other useful sources

 

NUJ report of the press conference, written by the NUJ's Phil Hunt (NUJ's Brussels website)

 

Press releases

publication

workshop

 

 

 

The AEJ and authors are naturally happy for short passages of the Survey and country reports to be extracted for quotation, but we would appreciate attribution to the AEJ if extensive use is made of this material. Email: william@aej-uk.org

 

 

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2012

 

OverviewReport by William Horsley, AEJ Media Freedom Representative

 

Armenia – Report by Liana Layadyan

 

Austria Report by Otmar Lahodynsky

 

Belarus – Report by Andrei Aliaksandrau

 

Bulgaria – Report by Kristina Hristova

 

Croatia – Report by Zdenko Duka

 

 

 

2012   

 

Overview Report by Krzysztof Bobinski, AEJ Poland

 

Romania – Report by Teodora Stanciu and Oana Enachescu

 

Serbia – Report by Miloje Popovic

 

Turkey – Report

 

Ukraine – Report by Maya Zakhovaiko

 

 

 

 

2010

 

Information without borders – Address by Birgitta Jonsdottir, Icelandic MP and author of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative

 

Armenia October 2010 report with reference to the Indicators for Media in a Democracy (see below)

 

BelarusEvaluation of the situation in Belarus

 

 

 

2010   

 

Bulgaria – Report (NB this is a PowerPoint file)

 

Ukraine Report, 17 January 2011

 

Ukraine – Overview of current obstacles to media freedom and independence, by Arthur Rudzitsky, 6 April 2010

 

 

 

 

2009

 

Ukraine – Report on Freedom of Speech

     in 2009 by Arthur Rudzitsky,

     Diana Dutsyk and Mykhailyna Skoryk

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008

 

2008 LINZ CONGRESS

Collected AEJ reports 2008

      First edition, 5 December 2008

      (minor corrections, 15.12.08)

        pdf file  – 242 Kb

 

 

 

 

 

Overview – William Horsley

 

 

 

Journalism at risk

·      Armenia – Liana Sayadyan

·      Austria – Otmar Lahodynsky

·      Croatia – Zdenko Duka (corrected 15.12.08)

·      France – Fabrice Pozzoli-Montenay

·      Moldova – Aneta Grosu

·      Poland – Krzysztof Bobinski

·      Serbia – Nebojsa Ristic

·      Slovakia – Tibor Macak

 

 

Declining public trust in the media

·      Croatia – Zdenko Duka

·      Czech Republic – Tomás Vrba

·      Hungary – József Martin

·      Ireland – Joe Carroll

·      Moldova – Aneta Grosu

·      Netherlands – Fred Sanders

·      Poland – Krzysztof Bobinski

·      Spain – Pedro González

·      Turkey – L Doğan Tılıç

 

 

 

2007

 

Full Survey (535 KB)

Goodbye to Freedom? November 2007

 

 

 

 

February 2008 Update (166 KB)

Goodbye to Media Freedom? February 2008