A Media Freedom Alert on Hungary published by media freedom organisations on the Platform for the Safety of Journalists has called for the withdrawal of a Bill to Register Organisations Receiving Funds from Abroad.
The Alert was published on 20 May by the European Federation of Journalists/International Federation of Journalists, the Association of European Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, and International Press Institute.
The Council of Europe sends all media freedom alerts published by its partner organisations to the governments concerned with a request for a written reply and “follow-up action” to remove the threat to journalists’ safety. This Hungary alert included a demand by the EFJ/IFJ, AEJ, CPJ and IPI for the withdrawal of the so-called “On Transparency in the Public Sphere” bill as the expected “follow-up action” by the government.
Hungary is one of a small number of Council of Europe member states which generally fail to cooperate with the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Safety of Journalists ’s by responding to verified media freedom alerts filed by the fifteen “partner” NGOs and journalists’ organisations. The Platform is a Europe-wide early warning and rapid response mechanism. Last month the Platform partner organisations and the Council of Europe marked the tenth anniversary of its original launch in 2015.
The Council of Europe has also intensified its unprecedented Journalists Matter campaign , which has mobilised many European governments to take significant initiatives to protect journalists from violence, legal harassment, and other forms of abuse as a matter of urgent priority.
On World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, 2025, the thirteen Council of Europe member states belonging to the “Group of Friends” of the Council of Europe on the Safety of Journalists and Media Freedom published a joint Statement which publicly urged all European governments to establish rapid response mechanisms and to respond in good faith to media freedom alerts when they are published on the Platform. The Group of Friends’ Statement said in part:
We must act to counter [these] numerous threats. Member States should do their part by implementing the instruments developed by the Council of Europe and applying the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as by establishing national action plans for the safety of journalists and rapid response mechanisms to alerts published on the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform. On the Platform’s tenth anniversary, we acknowledge its significant role in the protection of press freedom across Europe.
The Group of Friends consists of Austria, France, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.The 3 May joint Statement was also endorsed by a further 23 Council of Europe member states.
