2022
Europe is characterized by a decent amount of independent state media, by far the highest in the world. However, the share of the four models of independent state media in our matrix (independent public media, independent state-managed, independent state-funded and independent state-funded and state-managed media) went down to a tad above 50% from about 54% of all state media in Europe last year, an indication of slight deterioration.
Our European state media sample this year has nine new entities, with added countries such as Iceland, Liechtenstein and North Macedonia, and companies such as Polska Press in Poland, TV Pink and Informer in Serbia, or SiolNET in Slovenia. Additionally, our research on Monaco and Luxembourg concluded these two states lack state media companies.
Overall, the number of captured and controlled media models increased the most due to the emergence of new captured media as well as independence in media companies such as Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) and Slovenian News Agency (STA), and Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA) in Spain coming under attack. In spite of these developments, the independent state-funded and state-managed media models are still the most spread in Europe. The European continent is also home to the highest number of independent public media systems in the world, with 12 independent public media corporations located there.
What is striking about Europe is a still-wide gap between west and east, which seems to have been only further widening since last year. Some 47% of the independent state media in Europe and eight out of the 12 independent public media outlets are based in Western and Northern Europe (for more about the regional classification, see Annex. Global list of state media).
Nonetheless, even the independent state media in the west are facing risks. In Denmark, political parties, especially those on the right, have been attempting to trim the budget of the public broadcaster DR, raising fears of political control. In Austria, although the law prevents politicians from becoming members of the Foundation Council, the highest governance body at the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, the station has come under increased political attacks in recent years as right-wing parties in particular, critical of the ORF, have repeatedly called for the license fee to be abolished, a move that is expected to shake the station’s independence.
In spite of such attacks, however, the public media in Western and Northern Europe continue to command high levels of trust and produce high-quality programming, often protecting their independence thanks to a vibrant civil society that reacts against attempts by politicians and state authorities to control their operations.
In contrast, the state media in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey continue to act mostly as government mouthpieces, outlets in this region accounting for more than 86% of all state-controlled and state-captured media in Europe. That is the result of more than three decades of repeated failures to reform the state media in the region after the collapse of communism in 1990. Less than a fifth of the 59 state media in the region are independent, a decline from nearly a quarter last year. Such independent outlets include news agencies such as BTA in Bulgaria and CTK in Czechia. Only two countries in the region feature the independent public media model, namely Czechia (Czech Radio and Czech Television) and Lithuania (LRT).
A very concerning trend in the region is the rise of the private capture model where state authorities and political parties in power gain control over the editorial agenda of numerous privately owned media outlets. Not only are all 21 media groups fitting this model based in four countries in this region, namely in Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Turkey, but some of these groups are media conglomerates consisting of large portfolios of media outlets (including broadcast and print media and internet portals), which have an enormous market power. For example, KESMA in Hungary (which in our typology is presented as one media entity) runs around 500 media outlets in all media segments. Common for these four countries is also the government control of their national public media, MTVA in Hungary, TVP and Polskie Radio in Poland, RTS and RTV in Serbia, and TRT in Turkey.
But in spite of the dire situation of the state media in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey region, there is still room for worse. Since 2019, for example, the public broadcast group RTVSLO and the news agency STA in Slovenia have been under attack as right-wing parties have tried to erode their financial stability. These attacks prompted a change in their typology, per our State Media Matrix.
Finally, the Southern Europe region does not do much better than the Eastern Bloc. With the exception of a few independent news agencies (in Cyprus, Greece and Portugal), a sole outlet fitting the independent public media model (RTP in Portugal) and the network of regional television channels in Spain most of which retain their editorial independence (in spite of a raft of other problems), the state maintains its control over the state media in all of these countries (CyBC and BRTK in Cyprus, ERT in Greece, RAI in Italy, PBS in Malta and RTVE in Spain).