Defending free expression amid global decline: ‘Journalism must reconnect with people’

At the “Our Media” conference held in Sarajevo on Oct 2-3, organized by the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) and Mediacentar Sarajevo, NGO representatives and media workers from Western Balkan countries and Turkey gathered to discuss the state of press freedom and the evolving threats to journalism.

The first panel of the conference addressed the erosion of democratic institutions, the decline of public trust in the media, and strategies to protect independent journalism and the second panel discussed the future of the profession.

Moderated by Hungarian journalist Attila Mong, the Europe representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the first panel featured Brankica Petković from the Peace Institute Slovenia, Sarah Clarke from IFEX, and Erol Önderoğlu, the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and bianet’s freedom of expression advisor.

‘Between déjà vu and PTSD’

Opening the session titled “Holding the lines for freedom of expression,” Mong recalled the early days of media repression in Hungary in the 2010s, when public radio protested the passing of controversial legislation under Viktor Orbán’s government with a symbolic minute of silence. “At the time, little did I know what would happen,” he said. “But for us journalists, it showed clearly that these days there is a threat to what we are doing.”

Reflecting on how similar repression is now appearing in western countries, Mong said, “It was like a surreal experience for me actually to talk about my experiences to my US colleagues for whom it was kind of an eye opening talk that this is happening to us,” describing his feelings as “between  déjà vu and PTSD” in reference to a quote from Philippine journalist Maria Ressa.

However, Mong added,  “Maybe Hungary’s example shows that it will take long, but the societies will in the end realize what’s happening and may try to reclaim their rights, because that’s what’s happening in Hungary.”

Joining remotely, Sarah Clarke, who represented IFEX, a network of over 100 organizations in 70 countries, said most of those countries are moving in a negative direction in terms of freedom of expression.

She said the US administration contributed to this decline by suspending USAID, arguing that the cut was a major factor in the weakening of independent media around the world. “While always hypocritical, the US did support media freedom to some extent. That’s now gone.”

In a parallel comment to Mong’s, she remarked, “And we now see that the playbook of autocracy and media freedom borrowed from Hungary, from the Philippines, from Brazil, enacted with enormous speed [in the US].”

Clarke also underlined how Gaza has laid bare Western double standards. “It exposed the hypocrisy of many Western governments in terms of freedom of expression at home,” she said, noting the silencing of dissent and protest. “The failure to act in the face of genocide has exposed so many key issues, especially trust in media.”

On the technological front, she raised concern over the power of Big Tech and misinformation. “The EU has made some efforts, but tech companies are resisting regulation fiercely,” she noted. Still, she offered hope: “No one believed 10 years ago that Rappler would survive and Duterte would be at the ICC. But that happened.”

‘The danger is not in suppression but in fake pluralism’

Brankica Petković provided a structural critique, drawing on findings from SEENPM’s Future of Media research and MEDIADEM, a research project run by the European Commission on media policy-making processes in EU member states and candidate countries. “Freedom of expression remains contested, not just in the so-called fragile democracies but increasingly everywhere,” she said.

The most alarming trend, she argued, is not direct censorship but the systematic undermining of freedom of expression. “Illiberal regimes no longer censor. They flood the space with hate narratives and organized lying. They produce fake pluralism,” she warned.

One aspect of this trend is “paradoxical growth,” she said, explaining based on the SEENPM research that “We have new and new media in our region. At the same time, a sharp decline in journalism students and shrinking professional class. This mismatch suggests a media landscape growing in quantity, but not in quality and sustainability, often dominated by political economic capture.”

In the face of this landscape, Petković urged the independent media to shift towards community-based media models instead of relying heavily on donors. “Doing research for decades, I’ve always repeated: citizens, citizens, citizens. We look too much to Brussels, to our donors,” she said.

Research shows that citizens’ participation can rebuild trust in the media, which has been on a steep decline, she noted, adding, “Holding the line for media freedom takes shared effort. What we urgently need are joined up strategies to rebuild trust, to invest in media literacy, to empower citizens through media literacy, and above all, to create spaces where citizens are not just media consumers, but co creators of democratic culture.”

Meanwhile in Turkey

Erol Önderoğlu provided a snapshot of the media environment in Turkey in the light of recent political developments.

Although Ankara appears to be an active diplomatic player and regional power that is also working to resolve its Kurdish problem, Önderoğlu said, it is simultaneously dismantling internal democratic institutions. “The government is reconciling with the Kurdish movement while simultaneously jailing opposition politicians and journalists. This contradiction makes it hard to believe they are serious about democratic reform.”

He described the independent media as being in a “state of survival,” with such outlets and civil society organizations fighting to stay afloat. “Each week, I spend two days at the courthouse, attending at least a dozen journalist trials. That’s my routine,” he noted.

On the other hand, more than 85% of national corporate media is controlled by the government, he said. “Their aim is to dominate the national narrative entirely.”

Another challenge facing Turkey’s independent media is algorithm changes made by Google, a major traffic source for news sites, Önderoğlu said, noting that some outlets were forced to close in early 2025 due to reduced traffic and advertising revenue in absence of international funds.

“Those still operational have launched a wide scale of call for readers to contribute to their budget,” he added. “Citizen-based development is very important.”

The session closed with comments and questions from the audience. One attendant argued that the main danger to free expression today may not be hate speech, but “fake speech,” describing this as a toxic cocktail of “fake news, conspiracy theories, and government propaganda,” ın parallel to Petković’s comments.

In the face of this, “People are escaping public debate,” she said. “They don’t want to be crucified or demonized online.”

‘What future for journalism?’

After the first panel, which offered an overview of the media landscape in the Western Balkans and Turkey, the second one focused on the future of journalism in the region.

The panel titled “Future of journalism in Western Balkans and Turkey – What future?” moderated by Remzi Lani from the Albanian Media Institute, included Sinem Aydınlı, bianet’s research coordinator; Zaneta Trajkoska from North Macedonia’s Institute of Communication Studies; Helena Milinković, coordinator of the RTV Journalists Union in Slovenia; and Lejla Turčilo, a faculty member at Sarajevo University.

‘Journalism must evolve or die’

Zaneta Trajkoska offered a critique of the region’s journalistic inertia. “Our profession is still clinging to traditional models,” she said. “Meanwhile, influencers and political parties have taken over the role of news providers.”

“We need to change our formats, approaches, and understand our audience better, especially the youth,” she said and warned that without this shift, journalism risks becoming irrelevant: “If we don’t change, nobody will read, listen, or watch us.”

“I’m saying this is because I believe that journalists, not just in Macedonia, but in the region as well, are a little bit passive,” she explained. “Things are happening around us, but we are just keeping more traditional roles and models of journalism. Now our profession is led, for example, by influencers and bloggers who were at the press conference of Trump.”

Also emphasizing the need for cooperation between academia, media, and civil society, Trajkoska said, “We’ve all been working in our own bubbles.” she said, calling for collective effort without waiting for donor support.

Trajkoska urged the sector to reclaim its space from political actors. “Parties are now their own media houses—they have podcasts, social media channels, field interviews. They’ve taken our place. They’re setting the media’s agenda,” she said.

“So they took our role in society. So we need to do something to bring back that and to enter into the political world and create chaos as they created in our world”

Trajkoska closed by highlighting youth engagement as the most vital pathway to revival. “If we keep ignoring them, we lose our future audience.”

‘No one survives alone’

Helena Milinković shared the story of Slovenian journalists’ two-year struggle against the state capture of public media under former Prime Minister Janez Janša. Citing their eventual success, she emphasized the importance of building solidarity networks between journalists and the public.

“It started in 2020 when the government blocked funding to the Slovenian Press Agency. We knew RTV would be next,” she said, referring to the country’s public broadcaster.

Rather than retreat, Milinković and her colleagues built broad alliances across unions, civil society, and academia. “No one survives alone. You must mobilize your allies,” she said.

“We even rewrote the law during the strike. And we won a historic referendum—70% voted for our proposal,” she recalled. “This shows the public will support you if you speak with them, not at them.”

“Even the European Media Freedom act was adopted because of us. I’m proud that it started in Slovenia,” she added.

“The field is becoming more and more dangerous for everybody. So we have to support each other. And this is the reality that journalists today have no other choice but to work amid increasing harassment, intimidation, surveillance and risk to their lives and livelihoods. That’s why we have to build safety networks.”

Milinković urged others facing authoritarian pressure to study their opponents and expose them: “Use your skills as journalists. Research your enemies. Shame them. If you’re too intimidated, find someone respected to speak for you.”

“And don’t underestimate the public,” she said, adding, “We always think we are the smartest. No, they know a lot.”

‘Reconnecting with people’

Bringing the educational perspective, Lejla Turčilo highlighted the generational disconnect in journalism. She recounted a student asking, “Will journalism survive until we finish our studies?” and another asking, “What’s in it for me?”

“These students live in a world of influencers and podcasts, not newspapers and press clubs,” she said. Yet, despite skepticism, they still believe in journalism’s core values. “They want to be the voice of the voiceless and watchdogs of the system.”

Turčilo lamented the dire working conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where journalist salaries can be as low as 330 euros per month.

“Only 10% of journalists earn more than 900 euros. It’s unsustainable,” she said. As a result, most students migrate toward public relations or communications. “Life is too short to try to change Bosnia through journalism,” she said, quoting one student.

Still, she found hope in the stories submitted for an investigative journalism award. “Many were not about politics but about real people—stories of human lives, human rights, and environmental problems,” she said. “That’s where journalism can reconnect with society—by making public interest interesting again for the people.”

“The future of journalism is the future of stories of voiceless, the stories of the ordinary people and stories about lives of the people,” she said.

‘Media in Turkey is under siege’

Sinem Aydınlı provided a detailed picture of press conditions in Turkey. “Media in Turkey is under siege from powerful political and economic structures,” she said, citing prosecutions of journalists, arbitrary detentions, and intensifying censorship.

“Freedom of expression is severely restricted, the economic sustainability of journalism is weakening and the public trust is declining every year,” she remarked.

Aydınlı shared data from bianet’s Media Monitoring Reports, revealing that 25 journalists and five media outlets were physically attacked and 82 were threatened in 2024 alone.

She described how even reporting on police violence, such as during the detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March, can result in journalists being jailed under the law on demonstrations. “Just last week, bianet’s tweets about İmamoğlu’s detention were blocked by court order,” she noted.

Another tool used to restrict media freedom is bandwidth throttling, which is applied to social media and messaging platforms during sensitive periods, such as the protests that erupted after İmamoğlu’s detention, she noted. This measure effectively makes it impossible to access those platforms.

Economic conditions are also dire for journalists, Aydınlı noted. “Many local reporters don’t even make minimum wage,” she said.

With unionization rates below the national average, she said that journalism students are turning away from the field, viewing it as “criminalized, risky, and poorly paid.”

“The polarized media landscape in Turkey remains a major issue,” she remarked. “On one side, there are pro-government outlets; on the other, anti-government outlets producing equally polarized counter-narratives. In between, only a few truly independent media organizations—such as bnf—are striving to remain free from all centers of power. This polarization fuels widespread distrust and raises serious ethical concerns.”

Rebuilding trust

Moderator Remzi Lani concluded by reflecting on how the media landscape has shifted from a vertical system of broadcasting to a horizontal world of shared content. “From transmit to share,” he said, noting the erosion of institutional trust and the rise of disinformation.

Lani identified three existential challenges: adapting to a decentralized media system, navigating artificial intelligence, and developing sustainable business models. “If journalism is flooded by AI and disinformation, democracy itself is at risk,” he remarked. (VK)

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The regional program “Our Media: A civil society action to generate media literacy and activism, counter polarisation and promote dialogue” is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by partner organizations SEENPM, Albanian Media Institute, Mediacentar Sarajevo, Press Council of Kosovo, Montenegrin Media Institute, Macedonian Institute for Media, Novi Sad School of Journalism, Peace Institute and bianet.