European media freedom suffers under COVID-19 response
(World News Austria)

At a time when a free and vibrant media is more important than ever, governments in Europe are increasingly taking advantage of emergency legislation aimed at tackling the coronavirus to push through restrictions which seriously erode press freedom. According to data collected by the International Press Institute (IPI), over the past few weeks an alarming number of European governments, especially in eastern and central Europe, have used the ongoing health crisis as a pretext to restrict the free flow of information and clamp down on independent media. The most serious threats have so far been observed in states with authoritarian tendencies such as Hungary and Russia, where the pandemic has...