Media freedom in Europe

The association of European journalists has just published a survey of media freedom across Europe

According to their site

The Survey covers 20 countries in eastern and western Europe and highlights evidence
that media freedom in Europe is threatened by restrictive laws, hidden political and
commercial pressures, threats of jail, intimidation and in some cases even murder.
The findings are intended to encourage and assist future campaigns for media freedom
and independence.

Its maim finding are that

Media freedom and independence in Europe are not assured, and in some of the countries surveyed they are growing weaker. They must be won in law and in practice.

The problems of direct political interference in media affairs and contents are more acute in the “new democracies” of Central and Eastern Europe; but Western European countries can no longer be confident that they offer a more secure model of media freedom. New political and economic pressures in many of the older EU states mean that media freedom and independence there, too, are insecure.

You can download the whole report for free and there is a country by country section and nothing much to worry about in the Uk

Media freedom appears lively and strong in Britain three years after a notable setback in 2004, when the chairman and director-general of the BBC as well as a reporter were forced to resign after a confrontation over the reporting of flaws in a government dossier about supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and the death of a weapons expert, Dr David Kelly.