CoE presents report  "On the Tipping Point: Press Freedom 2025,"  which mentions Armenia

ArmInfo. The Council of Europe platform has presented a report t "On the Tipping Point: Press  Freedom 2025," which mentions the persecution of journalists in Armenia.

A report on the CoE website notes that, according to the annual  report of partner organizations of the newly established Council of  Europe Platform to promote the protection of journalism and  safety  of journalists, in 2025, press freedom in Europe continued to be  under sustained pressure, driven by legal threats, physical attacks  and intimidation, attempts of media capture and transnational  repression. "This situation was mitigated by initiatives in several  states and at the European level to improve press freedom and  journalists' safety, including the adoption of action plans to  protect journalists and legislation in some countries to address  issues such as abusive lawsuits, disinformation and source  protection," the statement reads.

It is noted that Across Europe, journalists were often physically  attacked during protests by police, political actors and protesters.  This kind of attack was reported in one quarter of the states covered  by the report, with the highest levels recorded in Georgia, Serbia  and Turkiye.

In several countries, public service media were subject to political  interference, restrictive legislation and insufficient funding.  Abusive lawsuits, known as strategic lawsuits against public  participation (SLAPPs), continued to be used widely to silence the  media. In this regard, the platform partners welcome the initiatives  in a number of countries to implement both the EU directive and the  Council of Europe recommendations against SLAPPs.

The report also expresses concern about the reported digital  surveillance of journalists via spyware, the transnational repression  of journalists, "foreign agent" legislation adopted or planned in  several countries, and the precarious working conditions of media  workers in many countries.

 "In 2025, the platform partners published 344 alerts of serious  threats to media freedom, a significant increase (+29%) from 2024,  when 266 were registered. The countries with the highest number of  alerts were Russia (50), Turkiye (49), Georgia (35), Serbia (35) and  Ukraine (27) - The report warns against the systematic use of  deprivation of liberty as a tool of media control. As of 31 December  2025, 148 journalists were held in detention across Europe, including  36 in Azerbaijan, 32 in Russia, 27 in Belarus, 26 held by Russia in  the occupied territories of Ukraine, 24 in Turkiye, two in Armenia  and one in Georgia," the report states.

The platform partners urge the Council of Europe, the European  Commission, and the 46 Council of Europe member states to enforce  press freedom standards. They recommend, as a matter of priority,  strengthening journalists' safety, fully implementing anti-SLAPP  standards, safeguarding the independence of public service media, and  increasing the protection of women journalists, among other measures.

The partners highlight that the Council of Europe?s  New Democratic  Pact for Europe should place media freedom, media pluralism and  journalist safety at the core of democratic resilience, include  safeguards against disinformation and media capture, as well as a  roadmap to integrate journalist-safety objectives into relevant  Council of Europe activities.

The platform's annual report covers 46 Council of Europe member  states, as well as Russia (following its exclusion from the Council  of Europe in 2022) and Belarus.