What is the state of press freedom in Europe?
To analyse this, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes the World Press Freedom Index every year.
The index ranks 180 countries on the ability of journalists to work and report freely and independently.
On the one hand, the 13 best countries according to the index are all in Europe. On the other hand, the situation in Russia, Türkiye and Belarus has been very serious, and not just since this year.
For example, more than 1,500 Russian journalists have fled abroad since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Belarus’s position near the bottom of the RSF’s index is due to the persistent persecution of journalists under the pretext of combating “extremism”.
