It is essential that journalists are safe.The impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Journalists.

 Media freedom in Europe continued to face major challenges in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this twelvemonth reporting period, the MapMF platform documented 166 different media freedom violations linked in some way to COVID-19. These involved attacks on 252 different persons or entities in 19 countries. Many of these alerts involved phys‐ ical and online attacks on journalists reporting on anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown protests across Europe. Sixteen cases were recorded which involved serious attacks on journalists or media workers who then required medical treatment. Overall, more than a quarter of all alerts (26.5%) recorded during 2021 were re‐lated to the pandemic, underscoring the persistent threats that the pandemic faces to independent journalism. The re‐ spective COVID-19 related alerts can be viewed here. These attacks on the free press came in many forms. Nearly one in three incidents (31.9% and 53 alerts) involved physical at‐ tacks, including 16 incidents (9.6%) where journalists and media workers were injured. 

More than half of the incidents (56.6%, 94 alerts) involved verbal attacks, such as intimidation, threats, and abuse, both online and offline. The MapMF also recorded 29 alerts (17.5%) where journalistic property was attacked, including the damage or theft of equipment such as cameras and mobile phones, in addition to vandalism and attacks on newsrooms. While a smaller number of alerts (3.6%) were legal threats, these included some serious incidents in which journalists or media outlets faced civil lawsuits or crim‐ inal sanctions for their reporting on the pandemic. A further 13 cases involved censorship or interference by governments in the free flow of news about the pandemic.

 A key trend in the alerts was that the vast majority (76.5%) of COVID-19-related at‐ tacks were carried out by private individuals, in most cases those supporting antilockdown, anti-vaccine, and anti-green pass causes. In contrast, police or other state security forces were responsible for only seven documented alerts. Many of these did, however, involve serious incidents, including arrests and raids by police on journalists’ homes. Meanwhile, leven cases were recorded in which the government or public officials were the source of the threat. Examples of the latter involved political figures verbally attacking individual journalists or media organisations over their critical reporting on the govern‐ ment’s handling of the virus. 

Other cases involved accusations of government interference in COVID-19 news broadcasts or instances in which certain journalists were blocked from attending pandemic press briefings. In a major case in Hun‐ gary, journalists were systematically barred from hospitals or from interviewing medical professionals about the virus and its toll on the country’s health service. In terms of location, almost two thirds (108 alerts, 65.1% were documented at protests and demonstrations, as journal‐ ists were trying to cover events. Numer‐ ous cases of physical violence and intimidation were documented at these protests, where anti-press sentiment was highest and journalists were frequently targeted by anti-vaccine groups. On multiple occasions, these attacks disrupted live broadcasts. Protests in Italy and Germany stand out in terms of the number of alerts involving threats and intimidation against the media.

 The MapMF also docu‐ mented 10 incidents in which journalists faced attacks at the office/at work (10 alerts), mostly in cases where newsrooms were targeted. High profile cases involved the storming of the building housing Sigma TV Station’s headquarters in Nico‐ sia, Cyprus, when protesters vandalised the building and threatened the media workers on site. In Slovenia, anti-vaccine protesters broke into the headquarters of the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, disrupted broadcasting, and harassed staff. An additional 13 violations took place in a public place. Other violations took place at court, where health precautions were used to ban journalists from attending tri‐ als and other public interest hearings. Eighteen cases were documented involving serious threats or intimidation against journalists online, including death threats. These figures included the increasing practice of doxxing, whereby journalists’ addresses or other private information was shared online. 

The majority of online threats were made on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It is important to note that MapMF figures on COVID-19-related online har‐ assment do not capture the scale of on‐ line abuse suffered by journalists report‐ ing on the pandemic. These kinds of insults and smears against journalists on‐ line are carried out by anti-vaccine groups on a daily basis and are impossible to record. Many of the most serious cases go unreported, as journalists increasingly view this hostility online as part of the job. Certain EU Member States and Candidate Countries saw far more COVID-19 related attacks than others. States with larger and more frequent protests against lock‐ downs and vaccines tended to experi‐ ence more violations. Germany and Italy, where demonstrations occurred on a near weekly basis throughout the year, both saw large numbers of attacks on journal‐ ists. Those countries in which far-right groups were a common feature in antivaccine protests, also tended to see more frequent attacks on the press. Other EU states not used to physical attacks on journalists, such as the Netherlands and Austria, also registered a worrying spike in cases due to COVID-19. Overall, com‐ pared to the first year of the pandemic

The 2021 Monitoring Report has focused on analysing the main attacks suffered by journalists and media workers throughout Europe during a year that has again been shaped by the impact of COVID-19. As shown in the report, threats related to the pandemic remained high, and in many countries journalists were attacked when covering protests against restrictions or vaccination mandates. Incidents linked to the pandemic took place in many countries, ranging from violence against journalists in demonstrations to reporters barred from hospitals or from interviewing healthcare professionals. In some cases, protesters also entered newsrooms and harassed journalists in their workplace. However, physical attacks were not the only threat faced by journalists. In fact, online attacks rose in the past year. Reporters from several countries were har‐ assed and intimidated online, many times through social media. In some cases, attacks came from anonymous sources, but prominent political figures also used social media platforms to criticise journalists and even to accuse them of lying to the public for accurately reporting on several social issues.

 In 2021, it became clear that the media has become a target for many actors: from governments trying to obstruct free press to individuals who are unhappy with the current social, health, and economic situation. In a time of crisis and turmoil, it is essential that journalists are safe so they can offer information to the public when it is most needed. This is why protecting media workers from physical, psychological, and legal attacks must be a top priority.