Counteracting impunity for crimes against journalists

Background and latest figures

Media freedom and pluralism, recognised as fundamental rights under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, are essential to democracy. Journalists play an essential role in democracy by providing citizens with reliable information to make informed political choices, holding elected representatives accountable, and ensuring that diverse perspectives, including those of minorities, are heard.

Although the EU is actively committed to protecting the safety and independence of journalists as an integral part of a proper democratic society, threats and attacks against journalists continue across Europe. Incidents include verbal abuse, physical assaults, obstruction of journalistic work, online harassment and legal action that may restrict independent reporting. Journalists investigating crime, corruption and abuses of power can be particularly exposed to threats and violence.

In recent years, those attacks and threats against journalists have been documented and reported, including by the European Commission's annual rule of law reports (2024, 2025 and 2026) and the Media Pluralism Monitor. Such attacks and threats can have the effect of intimidating journalists and even silencing them, discouraging independent reporting and restricting public debate on matters of general interest. Threats, harassment, public shaming and even assassinations of journalists have been reported, for instance, by Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR). Between January and June 2026, 736 attacks affecting 1 174 journalists and other media professionals were documented by MFRR across Europe.

Along similar lines, the Council of Europe's Safety of Journalists Platform reports that 53 journalists have been killed, and more than 2 300 alerts have been received from 42 countries since 2015. In Europe, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made the situation even worse; as reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 42 journalists and media professionals have been killed in Ukraine since 1992, 22 of them since the start of Russia's full‑scale invasion in February 2022.

The UNESCO observatory of killed journalists reports that 1 876 journalists have been killed since 1993 around the globe, and that in only 223 cases can the status of the judicial enquiry into the murder be considered 'resolved'. This indicator acts as a form of country assessment on impunity for killings. It is therefore important to ensure that investigations and prosecutions of crimes against journalists are conducted with impartiality, transparency and independence, to enable them to fulfil 'their crucial role on the ground'.

To prevent a culture of impunity, the United Nations General Assembly designated 2 November as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI). The date commemorates the assassination of Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, two French journalists, in Mali on 2 November 2013. For IDEI 2026, UNESCO's global campaign, under the theme 'Threats evolve. Impunity endures', will examine how new technologies are changing the threats facing journalists and how patterns of impunity differ between conflict and non‑conflict settings. The campaign will also coincide with the release of the UNESCO Director-General's 2026 Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity.

EU action to protect journalists

In 2021, the Commission recommendation on the protection, safety and empowerment of journalists stressed that citizens need to have access to multiple sources of information to ensure that they can both form their own opinion and scrutinise governments. The main objective of the EU's action was to 'prevent the emergence of a "culture" of impunity regarding attacks against journalists', which is why the recommendation invited Member States to create a safe and enabling environment. Specific recommendations were addressed to protect and empower female journalists, to raise awareness, to train law enforcement authorities and to tackle online attacks against journalists. According to its 2026 rule of law report, the Commission will continue to support a safe environment for journalists by updating its 2021 recommendation, and it also committed to reinforcing the safety of journalists in the European Democracy Shield.

Two key EU legal acts on media freedom were adopted in 2024. The Anti-SLAPP Directive provides procedural safeguards against manifestly unfounded claims and abusive court proceedings in civil or commercial matters with cross‑border implications. The Commission's 2022 recommendation complements the directive by addressing, among other matters, purely domestic proceedings. The European Media Freedom Act establishes a common framework for media services and includes safeguards for editorial independence, journalistic sources and confidential communications, as well as restrictions on the use of spyware against journalists, subject to narrowly framed exceptions.

European Parliament position

The European Parliament has called consistently for action to ensure respect for and enhancement of EU fundamental values as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Likewise, Parliament has repeatedly advocated press freedom and media pluralism.

In 2018, a Parliament resolution highlighted how journalists were still the target of deadly attacks, and recalled the importance of ensuring media freedom and pluralism. Parliament noted the recent political developments in various Member States that had led to increased pressure on and threats against journalists. Member States were urged to set up an independent and impartial regulatory body to report violence and threats against journalists and to ensure the protection and safety of journalists at national level. The same year, another resolution focused on the murder of the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová. In 2019, Parliament continued to address concerns regarding the safety of journalists and media freedom in Malta and Slovakia. Another resolution, in December that year, followed the revelations concerning the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

A 2020 resolution and a 2021 resolution stressed again how journalists – and, in particular, investigative journalists – are increasingly victims of hatred and violence with the sole aim of preventing public scrutiny and accountability. In June 2021, Parliament expressed, once again, its concerns regarding the erosion of media freedom and referred to 'smear campaigns against academics, journalists, judges, legal professionals, civil society organisations and activists' with the purpose of limiting their independence. In November 2021, Parliament called firmly for legislative action to address the undue use of actions under civil and criminal law to silence journalists, non‑governmental organisations and civil society.

In a September 2022 resolution, Parliament expressed concerns about the rise in online harassment, threats and legal action against journalists in some Member States, as well as the deterioration of media freedom in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. In 2023, Parliament called for stronger protection for journalists worldwide, both within and beyond armed conflict zones, emphasising their essential role in collecting and disseminating reliable information about conflicts, and reiterated the importance of protecting the safety of journalists and other media professionals in democratic societies.

Furthermore, the European Parliament has awarded the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism every year since 2021 for work that promotes or defends core EU principles and values such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights. The prize is a tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese anti‑corruption investigative journalist and activist who was assassinated by a car bomb in 2017. In 2026, the prize was awarded to journalists Maite Vermeulen and Giacomo Zandonini for an investigation published by De Correspondent into the implementation of the Italy‑Albania migration agreement, including the operation of migrant reception and detention facilities established in Albania. During the award ceremony, President Roberta Metsola stated that 'the European Parliament will continue to stand with journalists, defend press freedom and fight for justice'.