The Council of Europe (CoE) has launched a continent-wide campaign for the safety of journalists, to be run under the slogan ‘Journalists matter’.

According to the 46-member body, the drive is aimed at improving the safety of journalists and protecting media freedom across the continent, as well as raising awareness about the role journalists play in safeguarding a democratic and pluralistic society.

It calls for the adoption and implementation of national action plans for the protection of journalists, and enhanced legal and institutional standards.

The campaign’s other key aims include setting up effective remedies at national level to address violations of media freedom, improving the investigation of crimes against journalists, and ensuring the proper sanctioning of perpetrators.

Threats

The campaign, expected to last until the end of 2027, addresses what the council calls “the continued degradation of press freedom across Europe, reflected in increasing cases of violence and intimidation against journalists and impunity of the offenders”.

A platform sets up by the body to promote the protection of journalism has registered more than 1,600 alerts about serious threats to the safety of journalists and media freedom in Europe since 2015.

CoE Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić said: “We aim to help governments to protect journalists so they can do their work without undue interference, free from intimidation and violence, and perform their essential role in society.”

The campaign was launched on the first day of an international conference organised in Riga, in the framework of the Latvian presidency of the council´s Committee of Ministers.

The council is a human-rights organisation, whose members have all signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights.