Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party planned ahead: Some of their first major actions targeted the independence of the courts. Now, there are few ways for citizens to fight more direct attacks on civil society.
Tag: Press Freedom
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Reports Without Borders consistently ranks Austria among the best countries when it comes to press freedom in their annual investigations. In RSF’s 2021 report, Austria ranked 17th – putting into the second-highest bracket of countries altogether and near the top even of the European countries[1]. Curiously, there are some discrepancies…
Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Historical overview of the region’s democratization and backsliding When the “communist” dictatorships of Eastern Europe fell, one by one, in 1989 – and, with the exception of Romania, in a remarkably peaceful fashion – western euphoria was great. These countries and their people, newly “liberated” from their…
US press freedom is now considered “problematic” according to a key index. Here’s why.
Europe is the “freest” continent according to most indices and rankings, including Freedom House’s new 2019 “Freedom in the World” report. Though two countries – Serbia and, as the only EU country, Hungary – were downgraded from “free” to “partly free” this year (mainly for government-sanctioned intimidation and legal steps against opposition), the overwhelming majority…