Media freedoms on worrying downward trajectory in Europe

Alarm bells over the state of media freedom in Poland rang more loudly this week, after journalist Grzegorz Rzeczkowski was made redundant from a major independent magazine in the country. Although the reasons behind his dismissal were not disclosed, Rzeczkowski is the target of litigation filed by several state organs over his investigative articles into a topline wire-tapping scandal in 2014. His employers, Polityka, had been covering his extensive legal fees up until this point, but it’s now feared that their unwillingness to continue backing him could set a precedent for an industry whose independence has already been in freefall for some time.

Indeed, the campaign against Rzeczkowski seems to merely one example of a similarly coordinated attack on independent media outlets throughout Poland and further afield in eastern Europe. Bulgaria has long been the EU’s black sheep in terms of corruption and media monopoly, but has reached new lows as business oligarchs now own an unprecedented share of the sector, while Hungary’s increasing authoritarianism is equally choking the independent press.

“Problematic” Poland a sign of the times

Perhaps because Rzeczkowski’s revelatory investigations exposed serious allegations against prominent politicians and instigated major parliamentary upheaval, he is now facing four strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) for his troubles. These thinly veiled tools are implemented by agencies, officials and companies connected with the government to marginalize their critics, as they have done so effectively in Rzeczkowski’s case.

Unfortunately, his predicament is hardly an isolated incident. Since the Law and Justice party (PiS) came to power in 2015, it has overseen a decline in Poland’s performance in the World Press Freedom Index every year, with the latest iteration ranking the country at 64/180 – its lowest ever position. Below troubled nations such as Armenia and Malawi, the current situation has been labelled “problematic” by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and earned condemnation from European MEPs.

Some of the symptoms of the current malaise include the purchase of hundreds of regional media outlets by the state oil giant Orlen, followed by the unceremonious dismissal of several journalists who didn’t tow the party line. A proposed tax on advertisement revenue and a failed attempt to rid the country of its last foreign-owned media outlet are some of Warsaw’s latest measures to have provoked the RSF’s concern – all he while coverage of the 2020 election was heavily biased towards the incumbent party and characterized by arbitrary censorship of contentious issues.

Bulgaria the bloc’s worst offender?

Despite the underhand tactics employed by the Polish government, it’s not even the biggest culprit in the EU. That’s according to Transparency International, which identifies Bulgaria as the bloc’s most corrupt member in its 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

While Sofia performs poorly in a number of metrics, media freedoms are certainly one of its chief failings. But while in Poland the government controls the media, Bulgaria’s media landscape is in the hands of enterprising oligarchs who often align their outlets with whoever is in charge in Sofia. This has most notably been the case with Ivo Prokopiev, among Bulgaria’s most prominent oligarchs who amassed his fortune during the so-called “Overnight Privatization” of the late 1990s.

According to reports, Prokopiev has leveraged his immense wealth and sprawling media interests to foster good relationships with all incumbent governments over the last two decades, offering favorable coverage in return for political influence. His media conglomerate Economedia publishes some of the most widely read newspapers, but is likewise responsible for suppressing inconvenient information – as when it refused to acknowledge rumors that the Kaolin mining group, at the time owned by Prokopiev – had polluted local drinking water supplies, and propagating misinformation.

All of this disorder has contributed to a fragmented and failing political system and a disillusioned public. The chaos and confusion led to four different parliaments being in session last year alone, while a staggering two-thirds of the Bulgarian populace did not vote in the last election. With each passing poll, turnout is dropping by 10% every time.

Freedoms of press few and far between in Eastern Europe

Alongside Poland and Bulgaria, Hungary is another EU member which has perfected its playbook of diminishing the media freedoms inside its borders. Since his election in 2010, populist Viktor Orbán has set about systematically dismantling the sector’s pluralism and independence, now wielding a degree of control that is unprecedented in the EU.

Although he has stopped short of killing or jailing journalists, he has shut down dissenting voices by buying out independent outlets, starving holdouts of state funding and discrediting all critical reporters with allegations of being political activists, traitors and “Hungary haters”. It’s a tactic that has been mirrored by the Serbian government, which may not operate in as bloodthirsty a manner as in the days of Slobodan Milošević, but is no less effective in silencing the opposition.

For example, a recent survey found that the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was afforded 44 hours of airtime – 87% of it positive – in the run-up to this year’s elections. By contrast, his leading rival was allowed just three hours Serbian television, 83% of which was negative. The only channel which broadcasts alternative viewpoints is popular in Belgrade, but blocked in other towns and cities around the country. What’s more, the state recently tried to lure viewers away by offering 700% more for the rights to English soccer coverage than its independent competitor.

The Serbian example should cause headaches in Brussels, given the country is currently negotiating EU membership. Yet with Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary slipping further down the media freedom index, the EU is facing a veritable challenge to its stated values, which doesn’t bode well for potential future enlargements in notoriously hyper-factionalized Southeastern Europe.

Brussels must act quickly and decisively to put the brakes on European backsliding, or else face a future in which freedom of the press is an idealistic castle in the air rather than a cherished ideal.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes