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EBU launches campaign on threats to journalist safety

The European Broadcasting Union, the EBU, has launched a campaign to raise awareness of increased violations of journalist safety that newsrooms across Europe are reporting.

The EBU says incidents including physical, verbal, online and legal attacks are undermining the ability of public service media to cover major news events – with implications for European democracy.

Launched on 26 April, its campaign – #OurJournalistsOurFreedom – seeks to raise awareness of the scale of the issue and call for change.

In its ‘violations of press freedoms barometer’, Reporters Without Borders calculates that 24 journalists have been killed in 2022 alone – six of them in Ukraine – along with two media assistants.

Liz Corbin, EBU Deputy Director Media and Head of News, said: “Reporting accurate, factual and trusted news depends on our journalists being able to report on stories safely and without hindrance.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing trends that point to journalists being seen not as neutral observers, but as the enemy. Not only is this hugely distressing to our staff, it has severe implications for how we report a story.”

The EBU has dedicated the week in the run-up to World Press Freedom Day on 3 May to highlighting these increased threats to journalist safety, and by extension media freedoms, under the hashtag #OurJournalistsOurFreedom.