Central Europeans Express Concern over Decline in Media Freedom: Survey

Photo: Unsplash/Matt Chesin

The survey suggests however that there is much less agreement about what constitutes media freedom, and the survey results vary markedly between countries and political party affiliations.

European media has been facing a dual threat over the past decade, with illiberal governments, especially those in Central and South-East Europe, using sophisticated means to undermine independent media, while on the other side tech giants eat into the traditional media's business. The result has been a steady deterioration in media pluralism, most notably in Poland and Hungary.

Against this backdrop, the Committee for Editorial Independence in cooperation with the Czech National Committee of the International Press Institute, and supported by the Bakala Foundation, launched the most detailed study ever undertaken to discover public attitudes towards media freedom and independence across the Visegrad Four countries, sampling 4,069 respondents aged 18 and over between February 1 and February 17.

The main findings of the survey were that a majority (52 per cent) of people believe the state of media freedom has worsened over the last five years, especially the Poles, and a majority (52 per cent) expressed concern about the current state of media freedom, with the Poles the most concerned and the Czechs the least.

"These findings are driven by sociodemographic factors - younger people tend to express relatively less concern [about declining media freedom], while it is the older generations who tend to be more concerned across those countries," Vaclav Stetka, member of the Committee for Editorial Independence and one of the lead organisers of the survey, told a news conference.

Respondents who are voters of the ruling...