10 April 2018, Malta, Bidnija: Activists Pia Zammit (L) and Clemence Dujardin in front of the improvised cenotaph of the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia opposite the palace of justice. Lena Klimkeit/Press Association. All rights reserved.The brutal killings of investigative journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak came as tragic reminders that Europe remains a dangerous place for journalists. How European states respond to these murders will shape not only the future of the press, but also that of our democracies.
A look at available data helps understand the seriousness of the situation. In the past twelve months alone, six journalists were murdered, half of them in the European Union. Since 1992, over 150 journalists have been murdered on our continent, one every two months. Some were covering wars, but the majority were murdered while trying to spotlight the dark corners where corruption, crime and politics converge. Many of them had solicited police protection, but state authorities ignored these requests. Many of them had solicited police protection, but state authorities ignored these requests.
If murders represent the extreme, most visible way to silence journalists, other pernicious, less noticed threats also take a toll on journalists’ freedoms and safety in Europe. A report that the Index on Censorship and the European Federation of Journalists published recently shows that 220 journalists were detained or arrested in 2017 and over 1 000 cases of limitations of press freedom occurred, often at the hand of state agents. Since 2015, the Council of Europe has received over 160 alerts of attacks, harassment and intimidation against journalists and a 2017 survey showed that many journalists resort to self-censorship to avoid problems.
