Freedom of the press

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) released its annual report on abuses of journalists in 2014 on Tuesday.

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Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, has urged the Turkish government to halt its crackdown on press freedom and act in compliance with the rule of law and human rights, following a massive operation against journalists on Dec. 14.

The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) and the Turkey Journalists’ Labor Union (TGS) have released a joint statement to condemn the Dec. 14 police operation against the Zaman and Samanyolu media outlets, saying freedom of press and opinion are being “punished” in Turkey.

When you are in it, you might sort of get used to it. That’s why sometimes it becomes important when someone holds up a mirror.

I had this sentiment when I came across the findings of the “media barometer,” a study conducted with the support of a German think tank, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

After a six-hour debate on media freedom on Thursday in Serbian parliament, the culture and information committee urged the authorities to "vigorously react" to censorship and potential pressures on journalists to ensure pluralism of opinions survived in Serbia.

Every other journalist in Bulgaria is subjected to political and economic pressure, shows a survey of the "Reporter" and the "Konrad-Adenauer" foundations, quoted by the Union of Bulgarian Journalists.

It was done by Krum Blagov of the "Reporter" foundation and Orlin Spasov of the Sofia University among 100 journalists and editors and 15 media owners in Bulgaria.

Reporters without Borders representative Olivier Basille has said that the threats against journalists and the absolute lack of media ownership transparency are among the reasons why Bulgaria ranks so low in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index of the NGO.

"Balkans home to nearly half of media freedom violations"

VIENNA -- Since its launch at the end of May, over 170 cases have been submitted on the Ushahidi mediafreedom crowdsourcing platform.

The platform is promoted by Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and Index on Censorship.

The head of the Montenegrin police, Slavko Stojanovic, said on Tuesday that media freedom is the basis of any democratic society, and that his force is working to protect it.

During his first official visit to Germany on Wednesday, Prime Minister Vucic said that recent allegations of censorship in the Serbian media were false.