Monitoring Report January-June 2025

16.09.2025

The report documents a vast variety of attacks, indicating that media workers in Europe operate in an increasingly hostile environment. The types of attacks documented included verbal attacks – such as death threats and smear campaigns – physical attacks, attacks to property, legal incidents, and interference with reporting work. 

Media workers faced threats in different contexts – including private and professional environments. Attacks online were the most common, a trend that continues from previous reports. The second most dangerous workplace for journalists were protests, followed by incidents at court and public places. 

Though private individuals remained the main perpetrators accounting for 22% of the recorded incidents, they are closely followed by government and public officials, who were responsible for 21% attacks. Police and state security were the perpetrators of 12% of the incidents. 

A particular focus is put on the phenomenon of foreign agent laws and disinformation narratives about foreign media funding that have become a significant threat to independent media in Europe. Media outlets and workers in Georgia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Slovakia faced accusations of foreign funding, or were targeted by laws compromising media freedom. 

Serbia is also highlighted as a country of concern with a total of 96 press freedom violations. Amidst ongoing anti-government protests and a violent state response, journalists faced an unprecedented number of attacks, including smear campaigns by the government, attacks during protest reporting, editorial pressure and unjust dismissals.

The 2025 Monitoring Report is structured in four parts:

• A general overview highlighting major issues and trends of the press freedom situation in EU Member States and candidate countries, including quantitative analysis and charts with statistics.
• Two thematic chapters on prominent topics within press freedom in Europe: Foreign agent laws and disinformation narratives, and the emergency situation in Serbia. 
• An analysis of the press freedom situation in two EU Member States: Hungary and Romania.
• An analysis of the press freedom situation in four EU candidate countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Turkey, and Ukraine. 

This report was compiled by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the International Press Institute (IPI) as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.