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 organizations to the Council of Europe’s 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.
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 territories currently under Russian control 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.
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).
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 in territories currently under Russian control, 24 in Türkiye, two in Armenia and one in Georgia.
According to the report, at the end of 2025, Armenia was recorded for the fist time on the Platform with journalists or other media actors in detention, following the pre-trial detention of podcasters Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan on hooliganism charges.
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 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.
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 co-operation 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.
