The International Press Institute (IPI), the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC), ActiveWatch, and the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak (ICJK) announce the launch of a new project to defend press freedom in the European Union against media capture.
Journalism across the bloc faces sustained pressures from political forces, vested economic interests, and powerful tech platforms. That pressure undermines freedom of expression, a fundamental building block of democracy guaranteed in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The new project will help media and civil society organisations monitor and counter media capture, and in doing so protect democracy.
With the EU’s landmark European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) in full effect, the project will also run a multi-annual assessment of how Member States are applying the regulation’s safeguards for press freedom and where they are falling short.
At the core of the project is a new EMFA monitoring exercise that extends the media capture monitoring IPI and MJRC already carry out to cover all 27 EU member states. The research will examine developments through the lens of EMFA and will also cover the influence of tech platforms and other EU instruments, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA).
One report a year for each of the 27 member states will examine the independence of public service media; editorial independence and political interference; media ownership transparency and concentration; the use of state advertising; the independence of media regulators; media pluralism and competition safeguards; surveillance and spyware attacks; and risks that large technology and social media companies present.
The country-level reports will identify key risks, emerging trends, and reform priorities. Comparative regional analyses highlighting common patterns, national differences, and examples of effective safeguards will accompany the reports. The findings will help inform policy and will be shared with national authorities, the European Commission, the European Board for Media Services, the European Parliament, and other relevant institutions.
Capacity and network-building activities in four countries will run alongside the reports: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. These countries have faced significant risks of media capture and can offer lessons for strategies elsewhere in Europe.
ActiveWatch and ICJK will co-lead on coalition-building and knowledge-sharing, supported by IPI and its national committee partners. These activities will bring together press freedom groups, independent media, human rights organisations, journalists, and academics to monitor media capture and counter threats to press freedom.
In the second year, the partners will launch a permanent media capture monitoring platform. IPI will host the hub, which will provide access to reports, data visualisations, advocacy materials, and communication resources for journalists, researchers, civil society organisations, and policymakers.
The two-year project runs from September 2026 to August 2028 and is co-funded by the European Union’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme.
