In 2025, press freedom in Europe was under sustained pressure, driven by legal threats, attempts at media capture and transnational repression. This pressure was compounded by an increasingly hostile environment for journalism. This picture was mitigated by positive reforms in some member states and initiatives
at the European level.
The Council of Europe’s Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists, of which Index on Censorship is a partner, has today published its report on press freedom in member states, Russia and Belarus. Since the platform’s launch in April 2015, it has published more than 2,300 alerts on serious threats to media freedom. The number of alerts has risen steadily, from 106 in 2015 to more than 330 in 2025. A quarter of these concern attacks on the physical safety and integrity of journalists, including the deaths of 53 journalists or media professionals.
In 2025, hotspots of con ict and repression emerged as the primary sources of threats to journalists. Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, Russia, Türkiye and Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories recorded the highest numbers of alerts on the platform. Beyond these hotspots, the report examines structural pressures on press freedom in several other countries, such as Hungary, which has served as a template for authoritarian governance since Prime Minister Orbán’s return to power; Slovakia, where changes affecting public service media have raised doubts about its independence; and Azerbaijan, where the authorities have effectively disengaged from meaningful dialogue with the platform.
You can download the report here or flick through it below.
