Telex from Vienna. Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO): States tolerate violations

Violations of press freedom reached 149 in 2017 in the 32 countries of south, east and central Europe. the real number of attacks and threats against media and journalists is far higher

This message from Oliver Vujovic, Director of  South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), was sent to Ossigeno per l’Informazione on the occasion of the Concert for Press Freedom that was held in Rome on 21 June 2018 at the House of Jazz in Roma as part of the European Musica Day, to be read during the event.

Media Freedom violations we have in most European countries. The EU has no means of protecting media freedom- members of the EU family are doing what they want – it is very hard to stop press freedom violations tolerated by individual governments in EU. Violations of press freedom reported by the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) reached 149 in 2017 in the 32 countries of south, east and central Europe. However, the real number of attacks and threats against media and journalists is far higher, with 611 cases registered by SEEMO in 2017.