Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak were murdered a few months apart, the former in 2017 in Malta, and the latter in 2018 in Slovakia. Both were killed for their journalistic work as they were investigating corruption in their country’s political class.  

The two murders sent shockwaves through the entire European Union, shattering its image as an oasis of press freedom. But these violent acts were in fact the extreme expression of a more general process of erosion of the right to report and inform that has been happening for many years in numerous EU countries. At the time of Kuciak’s death, the independent media in neighbouring Hungary had already been silenced by Viktor Orbán, and in Poland, the government led by the far-right PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Law and Justice) party had turned the public media into a propaganda machine. Nor was the free press thriving in Bulgaria, Greece, and Croatia, according to the World Press Freedom Index compiled by the international NGO Reporters without Borders (RSF).  

In the face of the efforts by various illiberal public figures that have risen to prominence in recent years to control the public sphere (through what is called “media capture”), EU institutions have gradually adopted an increasingly proactive approach to defending media freedom and pluralism. Recent initiatives such as the Media Freedom Act and the anti-SLAPP legislation are proof of this renewed activism, as are the various funds that have been launched to support independent journalism in EU member states and neighbouring countries.  

EU institutions have gradually adopted an increasingly proactive approach to defending media freedom and pluralism.

However, EU institutions are not alone in combating attempts to stifle the public sphere. Journalists and independent media in many countries have mobilised to keep pursuing their own work as “watchdogs of power”. Poland and Slovakia are two significant examples.  

Authoritarianism and resistance 

In October 2023, the liberal, pro-European coalition led by former European Council president Donald Tusk won Poland’s parliamentary elections after eight years of the far-right PiS regime. The new government has prioritised freedom of the press – and notably the freedom of the public service – but the proposed reforms have so far met with opposition from President Andrzej Duda (a former PiS parliamentarian) and have also been criticised by a section of civil society as being too similar to how PiS had taken over the state media. In any case, the government is gradually restoring the rule of law. 

Slovakia, on the other hand, is moving in the opposite direction. In 2018, the coalition led by Robert Fico, a self-proclaimed social-democratic politician with ideas and policies that are close to those of the far right, was forced to resign in the face of massive street protests that followed the murder of Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírova. A series of fairly fragile populist-driven coalitions were formed in the aftermath of this political turmoil, all of which lacked the means or a genuine will to attack the media. As a result, press freedom in Slovakia was rated as healthy in the country up until last year (17th place in the RSF World Press Freedom Index). With the election of environmental activist Zuzana Čaputová as President in 2019, Slovakia appeared to establish itself as an outlier in a region that seemed to be moving increasingly towards the far right.  

However, Fico and his supporters returned to power last year. The new coalition, which also includes the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), immediately started launching attacks on the independent media. The new Culture Minister, Martina Šimkovičová – famous for previously promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube – has supported laws to increasingly restrict freedom of expression and pluralism. For instance, she has removed the directors of the country’s most important cultural institutions and, more importantly, has targeted the public service, accusing it of favouring the opposition. 

The situation deteriorated further last May following the assassination attempt against Fico. In his first public appearance after the incident, the prime minister accused the opposition and independent newspapers of being a sort of moral instigator of the attack. This aggressive rhetoric has given new impetus to the government’s campaign against a media sector that is considered too critical, and has led to the capture of the public service. RTVS, the broadcasting organisation that included public television and radio, was dissolved and replaced last June by a new entity, STVR. The board of STVR will be appointed partially by the government and partially by parliament, where the ruling parties have a majority.  

These attacks have been accompanied by the progressive institutionalisation of disinformation. “This government is making substantial use of alternative media, which is particularly active online. And this sort of [approval] of sources of disinformation, that are now accepted as genuine voices in the public debate, has led many of the government’s supporters to trust them,” says a manager of MEMO 98, an NGO that monitors elections and the media. There are many examples of the institutionalisation of the “disinfosphere”. For instance, some members of the conspiracy camp are now acting as spokespersons for government figures, and Fico’s entourage tends to invite conspiracy theorists into his retinue when on state visits, ignoring the professional media.  

From mobilisation to unionisation  

Journalists and independent media did not sit idly by, however. Forms of “journalistic resistance” have sprung up in both Poland and Slovakia, as evidenced through 30 interviews conducted last summer with journalists, editors, activists and academics in both countries.   

One form of resistance is cooperation among independent, often competing media. When a shocking attack is launched against the freedom of the press, the editors-in-chief of various newspapers immediately mobilise to publish joint statements or open letters, thus alerting civil society, the public, and European institutions. This cooperation now also includes media outlets that are not subject to direct attacks from the government, and which are perceived as more neutral. For example, Lucia Okšová, the editor-in-chief of Forbes Slovakia, says: “I clearly feel the tension in the Slovak media landscape today. We therefore have to work out how to support our colleagues most effectively when they need it or when they ask us to sign statements to defend freedom of the press.” 

In some cases, this cooperation has also evolved into more structured approaches. An example in Slovakia is the platform Safe.Journalism.sk (Bezpečná.žurnalistika.sk), which monitors all the attacks made against journalists and media in the country. It is operated by the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak, founded in 2021.  

In Poland, the most conspicuous example of cooperation occurred on 10 February 2021, when the entire spectrum of independent media took part in the “Media without Choice” event (Media bez wyboru). The mobilisation came as part of a general strike by independent media against a proposal by the PiS government to impose heavy taxes on advertising revenues, which many in the independent media rely on. Newspapers and television stations did not broadcast news for a whole day – showing instead black covers and screens.  

Cooperation among independent media has prompted the creation of many journalism unions and associations for the first time. 

The protests that same year against “Lex TVN” (Broadcasting and Cinematography Act), that aimed to “repolonise” TVN, a major independent television station owned by the US-based Discovery Group, were also well attended. Several newspapers focused on the events surrounding TVN, which culminated in the veto of the law by President Duda. As a TVN employee summarised the events: “The other media supported us just as they were about to pass Lex TVN. They covered our story and explained to their audiences what was wrong with it. People protested, and many of these media outlets reported it. Journalists also joined the demonstration, and they [the editors] gave us permission. (…) The solidarity was amazing.”  

According to many of those interviewed in Poland, this high level of cooperation has also made it easier to mobilise EU institutions and transnational NGOs for press freedom, such as RSF and the European Federation of Journalists.  

In both Slovakia and Poland, cooperation among independent media has prompted the creation of many journalism unions and associations for the first time.  The Polish Media Council was launched in Poland in October 2023, becoming the first inter-journalistic platform to discuss common issues and challenges. Moreover, some journalists who had resigned from public radio due to political interference went on to found the Association of Public Radio Journalists and Authors (Stowarzyszenie Dziennikarzy i Autorów Radia Publicznego).  

Internal unions have also formed in many newspapers in Slovakia to preserve the editorial freedom of staff when faced with undue interference by owners. As one veteran of Slovak journalism explained in May, “unions have never had a presence in the media sector in our country. They hardly exist! Maybe just a couple of those old-fashioned unions that had no journalist members but were more for sound engineers and other employees. They weren’t very popular, both for cultural reasons and because of the way unions work. However, various unions have sprung up in many media outlets over the last few months.”  

The most notable case involved the main victim of attacks from Fico and his supporters, TV Markíza. Last summer, the Markíza in-house journalists’ union appointed as its leader the presenter Michal Kovačič, one of the figures most disliked by the government. This measure prevented the network’s owners from firing him, as Slovak law prohibits the dismissal of trade union leaders.     

Independence from public funding 

Another important form of resistance against media control in Poland and Slovakia has been the creation of financially independent projects that promote quality journalism, essentially created by journalists who were made redundant or forced out of certain outlets under political pressure. The majority of these new networks are NGOs that have rejected any form of direct or indirect (advertising) public funding, as they are aware that such funds are one of the main levers governments can exploit to influence their editorial policy.  

A good example of this is State of the World Report (Raport o stanie świata), a podcast launched by one of the most famous names in Polish public radio, Dariusz Rosiak. Other instances include investigative projects such as VSquare, Front Story, and Oko.press: Vsquare comprises investigative journalists from the four countries of the “Visegrad Group”, (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) who carry out transnational investigations. Front Story produces the best of Polish investigative journalism, while Oko.press has established itself as one of the most reliable fact-checking services in the years of PiS rule, along with Demagog.   

Even the more traditional Polish newspapers have learned to diversify their income streams. “Advertising from public bodies vanished overnight from the mainstream media. They wanted to put pressure on us to stop us from writing negative things about them, but what they actually did was to make us more independent of state contracts. We’ve learned to live without public funding,” says the editor-in-chief of one of the most popular radio stations in the country.  

Journalistic resistance in Europe is becoming increasingly transnational and is in opposition to the “Europeanisation” of far-right authoritarianism.

In Slovakia, the case of Dennik N, one of the media outlets that has received the most attacks from the government, stands out. Founded by former journalists from Dennik SME, the country’s leading daily newspaper acquired by the controversial Penta conglomerate in 2014, Dennik N has emerged as one of Europe’s most effective journalism projects funded by its readership: to date, it has more than 70,000 subscribers in a country of just over 5 million people. This number is very similar to the total amount of subscribers to Il Post, one of the most successful digital media outlets in Italy, which has 10 times the population of Slovakia. More recently, Michal Kovačič has launched 360 Degrees, a new online news outlet, building on the experience and following he gained during his 16 years at TV Markíza.  

The Europeanisation of the public sphere 

Many of those interviewed spoke of the “Orbánisation” of the media, noting how the strategy pursued by Orbán to dominate the public sphere in Hungary now serves as a model for other authoritarian leaders. The speed with which Fico’s government dismantled the public service is partly related to this model.   

Journalistic resistance in Europe is becoming increasingly transnational and is in opposition to the “Europeanisation” of far-right authoritarianism. Some Slovak journalists who were interviewed said they were ready for the manoeuvring of the new Fico government, as they had seen what had happened in Poland and Hungary and had taken the initiative. “We were in a better position than our Hungarian colleagues, as numerous publications are supported by readers in our country, while many media outlets in their countries relied on public funding. You’re much more vulnerable in that situation,” explains an activist from MEMO 98.  

This view is shared by Dennik N’s editor-in-chief: “We are independent, and support from our readers has grown since the last election. This is also the case with Dennik SME: not only do they earn revenue from advertising, but they also have a very strong subscription base, which makes them resilient. There was nothing like this in Hungary ten years ago; they had no media supported and funded by readers. It’s different in Slovakia, where people are used to paying for news, more so than in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland. We have been educating the public for years on the idea that news is not for free; if you want quality journalism, you have to support it in some way or another.”  

Transnational projects such as Vsquare and the Voicee podcast, edited by a network of independent media operating in several Visegrad Group countries, are helping to Europeanise the resistance of journalists and media that are not aligned with the diktats of the powerful. This is also true of the increasingly central role of transnational NGOs, such as RSF, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and the Prague Civil Society Centre, which are key players for media under attack in areas such as legal support, fundraising, and social outreach.  

Paradoxically, the sovereigntist far right that aims to fragment the EU is contributing to the emergence of a transnational public sphere, where borders between member states are irrelevant to those who want to defend “the right to freedom of expression” guaranteed by Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.