European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Authorities will treat cases involving attacks on journalists in the same way as they treat assaults on police officers. There will also be new penalties for assaulting a journalist or a media worker, and online harassment will be criminalised.

Groups of protesters against mandatory vaccination clashed with police and broke into the DIAS media group building that houses Sigma TV. The mob attacked staff, set cars in the parking lot on fire and trashed the offices.

Peter R. de Vries, a well-known Dutch investigative journalist who covered high-profile criminal cases, was shot as he was leaving a TV studio on 6 July. Police have arrested three suspects.

Last summer, the businessman Marian Kočner and his confidante, Alena Zsuzsová, were acquitted of ordering Kuciak’s murder in February 2018. After reviewing new evidence on 15 June 2021, the Supreme Court remanded the case back for a retrial.

“As we have documented in recent months, the survey clearly shows a deterioration in the safety of journalists in the Netherlands. It is worrying to say the least, because it is happening in a country where the attacks are generally taken seriously by the authorities” – EFJ

Yesypenko is detained and accused of “illegal production, repair, or modification of firearms” and “espionage” for Ukrainian intelligence. His lawyer said the journalist had been tortured with electric shocks and beatings in order to obtain a confession.

“The international community cannot remain passive in the face of the refusal of dialogue and the intensification of repression by Mr Lukashenko’s regime. New diplomatic weapons are needed to stop the continuing violations of human rights and press freedom” – EFJ

Catarina Andreeva and Darja Chulcova, two journalists for Belsat, were each sentenced on 18 February to two years in prison for reporting live from an anti-government rally in Minsk in November.