Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom CMPF

05/10/2026

Can data visualisation improve public and political decision-making?

On 7 October, we will welcome Benjamin Bach (INRIA) to discuss how data visualisation can make complex information more accessible, uncover hidden patterns, and foster collaboration across disciplines.

From data comics and dashboards to climate action and peacebuilding, discover how visual evidence can support understanding and informed decision-making.

📍 Convento di San Domenico (Florence) & online
🕚 11:00-12:30 CEST

Register here: https://lnkd.in/dqMHUjUv

Jan Erik Kermer Ph.D., Elda Brogi

29/09/2026

JUST PUBLISHED! 📚 NEW BOOK OUT

Are digital technologies taking us closer to a more equal society, or creating new forms of inequality?

Digital transformation has often been presented and celebrated as a democratising force. However, rather than opening up new worlds and breaking down barriers, digitalisation is often shaped by existing inequalities and can, in turn, reinforce them: from access to opportunities to information, education, employment or sociopolitical participation.

The newly published e-book 'Understanding and Addressing Digital Inequalities', co-edited by Roberta Carlini, Danielle da Costa Leite Borges, Leonardo Mazzoni and Natalia Menéndez González, brings together 25 contributions exploring the complexity and far-reaching impact of technological progress on democracy through the lens of inequality.

The volume consists of a selection of papers that were presented and discussed at the first conference on digital democracy organised by the Centre for a Digital Society and the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute in November 2025.
The conference brought together scholars from different fields to discuss these issues and explore the policy tools that can help bridge the digital divide.

Access it here and download a copy 📌 https://lnkd.in/eHPD5bGv

Learn more 🔎 https://lnkd.in/eEGNChin

A big shoutout to all the contributors! 👏 Pier Luigi Parcu, Laura Bisio, Angelo Cuzzola, Marco Grazzi, Daniele Moschella, Andrea Pezzoli, Alessandra Tonazzi, Federico Tomasello, Tomasz Drabowicz, Maja Rynko, Eliana Canavesio, Bence Sagvari, Iva Nenadic, Nebojsa Stojcic, Romana John, Valentina Vučković, Paško Bilić, Georgia Jenkins, Ofer Tur-Sinai, Dr. Lital Helman, Miguel Tomas-Miranda, Marcelle Chagas, Sakshi Sharma, Aishwarya Pagedar, Chris Chambers Goodman, Michael Sierra, Drenhaus Mark, Anabela Costa Leão, Alessandro Billi, Kevin J Spellman, Federica Casarosa, Esther Forson, Onno Hansen-Staszyński, Dae-Hyun Yoo, Nicola Dimitri, Kristina Aleksandrovna Pedersen and Joushua A.Tucker.

28/09/2026

Behind every fact, there is a journalist. Behind every journalist, there is risk.
On World News Day, we stand with them.

The Media Pluralism Monitor 2026 highlights the growing risks they face: media concentration, legal intimidation, weakened newsroom autonomy, platform dominance, and fragile business models continue to put press freedom under pressure across Europe.

📊 Explore the hashtag findings and see how the media landscape is evolving across Europe: https://loom.ly/Y7faQDY

hashtag

24/09/2026

What does Ukraine need to do to align its media framework with EU standards on the path to accession?

🌍 In a new working paper produced within the EUI Widening Europe programme, Elda Brogi, Enrico Albanesi, Konrad Bleyer-Simon, Olena Boryslavska, and Dariia Opryshko examine the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of EU accession and media pluralism in Ukraine.

📝 The paper explores how Ukraine can further align its media legislation with key EU frameworks such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), while addressing the unique challenges posed by the ongoing war.

🔎 The authors identify a series of legal and institutional reforms to strengthen media freedom, transparency, regulatory independence, and public service media governance. They also examine how Ukraine can strike a balance between protecting freedom of expression and countering disinformation in the context of national security and territorial integrity.

📖 Read the full working paper, EU accession and media pluralism in Ukraine, here: https://loom.ly/icYQLog

16/09/2026

⏳ One week to go

If you work in:
✔ news media
✔ communications
✔ digital policy
✔ journalism research

Join our free online workshop , which will offer practical insight into how journalists can be protected from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

Hear directly from:

- Kusari (ECPMF) and the other event participants in an open discussion on SLAPPs

- Experts and academics about experiences in Greece, Italy, Croatia and Spain with Suaua Martínez (Universitat Ramon Llull), Bilić (Institute for development and international relations (IRMO), Papadopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens),
Enea Vigevani (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)

- The European Commissions' Redinha and D'Osualdo, the Council of Europe's Lucchese, our Deputy Director Brogi and Bellanger (IFJ), on the EU and CoE's mechanisms against SLAPPs

🗓️ 23 September 2026 | 09:00 – 12:00 & 14:00 – 16:00 CEST
Online


Reserve your place today: https://loom.ly/DJCvrrU

This event is organized with the Federation of Journalists, per la Cooperazione Internazionale, -NUNS Serbia, Trade Union of Journalists media workers, Federazione Nazionale della Stampa, Union of Media of Montenegro.

Events of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom. Conferences, seminars, workshops and special events organized by CMPF.

15/09/2026

Welcome to Eduardo Molano, our new Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom! 👏

Eduardo joined us on 15 September 2026 and for the next months, his research with the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies' CMPF will focus on and shifting media landscape, how transnational networks and non-traditional reshape Senegalese migrant narratives in Europe and Africa.

Join us in giving him a warm welcome as an Visiting Fellow!

🔗 Learn more about his work: https://loom.ly/NWoQeQY



European University Institute

03/09/2026

In June 2026, Malta ranked as the second worst-performing EU country in the Media Pluralism Monitor and as the European country with the highest number of SLAPPs per capita.

The report reflected how hostile the environment itself is to the journalistic profession and noted that, in February 2025, the man accused of masterminding Caruana Galizia’s assassination was released on bail, pending trial. Yesterday, he was acquitted.

This means that nobody has been found guilty of ordering and paying for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Almost nine years after a murder that shocked Europe, impunity persists.

“𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 2017 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘠𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘢'𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.”

The problems go beyond this case: laws have limitations or are not properly implemented in practice. Anti-SLAPP legislation, for example, does not cover domestic SLAPP cases. As a consequence, journalists continue to face online and offline threats and harassment, with little to no repercussions for perpetrators, particularly those in positions of power.

Public servants continue to target journalists on social media, while authorities continue to breach the right to freedom of information by failing to handle FOI requests properly.

The assassination of a journalist should never fade into the background of a country’s history. Malta’s experience deserves our attention and serves as a reminder that democracy, press freedom and the rule of law cannot be taken for granted.

Learn more about the Malta MPM 2026 results: https://lnkd.in/dMgC2QRS
Authors of the Malta MPM country report 2026: Gorg Mallia, Megan Mallia and Louiselle Vassallo.



Photo: A portrait of Daphne Caruana Galizia at a makeshift memorial outside the Valletta law courts building. Photo by Matthew Mirabelli.

02/09/2026

SAVE THE DATE! How can journalists integrate the newest technologies into their work?

🗓️ 29 September 2026

Join our next online workshop, “Artificial intelligence and journalism: audiences, guidelines and products”. The programme includes:

✅ Ethical guidelines for AI use
✅ Research on AI in newsrooms
✅ Audiences’ perceptions of AI in journalism
✅ A discussion with European technology companies about the value of their services for journalists

Morning session: 09:00–12:00 CEST
Afternoon discussion: 16:00–18:00 CEST

👉 Register for free: https://lnkd.in/dZZcBeUv

This event is part of the Media for Citizens and Democracy in the Digital Age training project, organised together with the IFJ - International Federation of Journalists, Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa, Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers, Independent journalists association of Serbia and Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana.

With: Elda Brogi, Nisrine Salameh, Konrad Bleyer-Simon, Anthony Bellanger, Dren Gërguri, Amina Mahović, Hannes Cools, Morana Perić, Hans Brorsen, Manuel Herranz and J. Alex Dalessio.

European University Institute

28/08/2026

🇪🇺 What would make from across more accessible and relevant to you?

Display Europe has launched two short surveys:

→ 'You and journalism from other European countries' (3min): https://tally.so/r/EkZZV2
→ 'Help us build cross-border journalism distribution that actually works for you' (15min): https://tally.so/r/NpQOqj

Whether you are a reader, a journalist, or both, your feedback can help shape what's next. Thank you for taking part! 🙌

Made with Tally, the simplest way to create forms.

20/08/2026

⏳ Final days to apply for the Voices Awards 2026!

Are you a young journalist or media freedom advocate using your work to make an impact? Come to Thessaloniki as an awardee! 🇬🇷

The Voices Awards will grant 25 awards of €1,200 each to selected young journalists and media freedom advocates to participate in the festival’s upcoming edition.

🏆 Awards recognise outstanding work across eight categories, spanning journalism and media innovation — from radio, video, digital, cartoons and comics, and photojournalism to media literacy and international best practices.

📅 Deadline: Sunday, 23 August 2026

Find the eligibility criteria and application details: https://loom.ly/9WQ8R7w



Voices - European Festival of Journalism and Media Freedom European Federation of Journalists - EFJ European Centre for Press and Media Freedom ECPMF, European Broadcasting Union - EBU EAVI - Media Literacy for Citizenship Lie Detectors, Savoir Devenir, DW News and Journalists' Union of North Macedonia and Thrace.